52 Days
by frizzyfro12
Summary: When Lily and James catch their ex's snogging at a party, they decide to date each other for two months. While their game was supposed to keep either from being alone, one develops feelings for the other and their game is more than what was intended...
1. Chapter 1: The BreakUp

Chapter 1: The Break-Up

Lily Evans sat on a sunken in couch with a frown on her face. She held a bottle of butter beer loosely in her hand, swirling it around aimlessly. Her left leg was crossed over the right, her foot twirling in time with her hand. She gave a soft sigh.

It was the night of the first quidditch match and the infamous Marauder's took it upon themselves to throw a party for the Gryffindor win over Slytherin. All three houses were there, including some Slytherins. This night was supposed to be a night for joy, relaxation and drunken fun. Lily was not relaxed, she was not full of joy and she most certainly was not feeling the drunken fun.

Just seven hours ago Lily had a boyfriend. A hot, sexy Slytherin boyfriend. Keith Fox was your stereotypical tall, dark and handsome guy. His rippling tan muscles and brooding gray eyes left all the girls wishing he was theirs.

But Keith was also a Quidditch fanatic. Quidditch was his life. After the brutal defeat of Slytherin today, Keith ended things with his long-term girlfriend.

_Lily found Keith standing on the Quidditch pitch. _

_"Hey babe," she greeted him._

_"Lily," he responded. He sounded distant._

_"That was a pretty intense match, don't you think?" Lily asked with a giggle as she led the two of them back towards the castle._

_"Yeah…really intense."_

_That's when Lily noticed the distance in Keith's voice._

_"Babe, you alright?"_

_Keith pulled Lily aside from the walkway._

_"Look…Lils-"_

_"What's going on Keith?" Lily asked; the worry was evident in her voice._

_"Lily…I don't think you and I are going to work out…anymore," he said quietly._

_"What? Why?" Lily asked incredulous._

_"Well…it's just that…"_

_"…that…?"_

_"That you're…you're…you are a Gryffindor. I can't be dating a Gryffindor while in Slytherin's house…and problems are going to rise…this just isn't going to work," Keith finished lamely._

_"Wait-you're breaking up with me because I'm in _Gryffindor?_ That's _it_? That has got to be the stupidest reason to break up with someone," Lily snapped, not believing what she was hearing._

_"Look Lily. You're in Gryffindor and I'm in Slytherin…we're like…two different people. And when the serious things come along…well, you just wouldn't understand," Keith said with a shrug._

_"I wouldn't understand? What the hell is that supposed to mean? That doesn't even make sense!" Lily was now bordering the edge of hysteria. "If you wanted to break up with me, you should have just done it…not come up with some….lame…excuse about houses and shit." Lily shook her head a couple of times…trying to keep the tears from brimming up._

_"Sorry," Keith muttered._

_Lily turned on her heel and started to walk away. But then she paused, turned around, walked back to where Keith stood and slapped him hard on the face._

_"You should be sorry that you stuck around for that," she muttered and stalked away._

Now Lily sat on a couch, wishing more than anything she was among what felt like thousand's of couples talking, eating and dancing together. She hated those couples, but she also envied them. _This night can not get any shittier,_ she decided as she took another swig of her drink.

James strode into the party that he was supposed to be hosting. He had left briefly, but was now back and ready to party. At least that was what he thought.

"James! There you are! I've been looking for you," Sirius said loudly, trying to make himself heard over the blaring music.

"I had some business to take care of," James explained.

Sirius raised his eyebrows in James' direction.

"Sandy broke up with me," James said answering the unasked question.

Sirius eyes widened this time. "Really? Why?"  
"Said that there was "someone else" and that I wasn't "satisfying her needs," James said using air quotes.

"That sucks big time." Sirius said.

James just nodded his head.

"But, look at it this way. Now you're free to hook up with whoever you want."

"Yeah…I guess so," James said. The only problem was that Sandy's face was still a vivid image in his mind.

"Have fun, mate. Talk to some nice girls, don't come back to the dorm till two O' Clock!" Sirius cried.

"Alright," James said with a sad chuckle.

Sirius went off in search of a girl to dance with. James tried skimming the crowd for Remus and Peter, but they were no where in sight. He walked over to the drinks table and grabbed a butter beer. Then James started to wander.

People all around congratulated him on his win, and then he would modestly say that if it wasn't for the rest of the team, there would have been no victory. Girls tried to get him to dance with them but, he just wasn't interested. What did catch his eye though was a red haired girl sitting on the couch in the middle of the room. James walked over to her and plopped down.

The girl either didn't feel James sit down or she choose to ignore him, because she didn't move in the slightest bit when he sat down beside her.

"Hey…why aren't you dancing?" he asked her.

She looked at him. James watched her eyes travel down his body and back up. She locked eyes with him and then took a swig of her drink, not breaking the contact.

"Don't have a date," she answered.

"Don't need one," James answered back.

"Used to have one…but now I don't," she said, taking another sip from her bottle.

"Me too. Isn't that a coincident?" he asked.

"Guess so," she muttered.

"You're Lily Evans right? I'm Ja-"

"James Potter. I know who you are," She said cutting him off.

"Oh…well Miss Lily Evans, how come you no longer have a date?"

"Broke up with me… that's why," She answered bluntly.

"Oh…that's sucks. I just broke up with my girlfriend too. Actually…she broke up with me but, that's beside the point," James said, using his hands to illustrate his point.

That made Lily laugh.

The two sat in silence for a while when a thought struck Lily.

"Doesn't it feel like we're the only two people who don't have dates?" she asked.

"I don't know. I never really thought about it…" he trailed off.

"Well I mean…look around. Do you see anyone else either by themselves or sitting on a couch drinking butter beer?" she asked.

James looked around. "No, I guess not. It's official. We are the last two people in this school to find love…or lust," James added as an afterthought.

Lily laughed again. "Yeah…seems like it.

"Want to dance with me?" James suddenly asked.

"What? No, I'm no good at-"

"Come on! It will be fun!" James exclaimed as he jumped to his feet.

"No. I can't dance!"  
"I'll help you. Come on!" James said as he took Lily's hand and pulled her onto her feet. He dragged her out onto the floor and pulled her real close. They started moving in time together almost instantly. Lily looked up into James eyes in surprise. He just smiled a toothy grin at her.

They stayed embraced like that for about an hour when finally Lily needed a break.

"I need to get some water," she said as she pulled herself away from him. Lily started to walk towards the edge of the dance floor. James followed her.

"Wait! Are you leaving me?" he asked.

"Well, you can certainly come with if you'd like," Lily said with raised eyebrows.

She didn't know much about James Potter but this state of I'm-a-lost-puppy was not normal for him.

She grabbed a bottle of water, unscrewed the lid and guzzled a huge amount.

"Let's go for a walk," Lily said as the pounding of the music was starting to upset her.

The two walked silently as Lily gulped her water. They weren't really headed in a particular direction, just somewhere away from the party. They found a long stretch which Lily slid down and sat. She gave a long sigh and tipped her water back to guzzle some more.

"What's up with the butter beer? My throat is _so_ _dry_," Lily stressed.

"Maybe a tad bit of firewiskey," James mumbled.

'Ug…you've got to be kidding me. I've had about seven of them!" Lily cried. But then she started giggling to herself.

"Hahahahahaha, I'm gonna be out of it soon enough," she said with a chuckle.

James laughed along with her. Then the two got really quiet. They sat in each other's silence for a while.

"What are you thinking about?" James finally asked.

"Lots of things," she answered.

"Wanna tell me about it?"

"Not really…"

"Please?" James pushed.

"Keith," Lily answered quietly.

"Oh. Him. What about him?"

"Wondering…"

"Wondering what?"

"Wondering what I did wrong. Wondering why I wasn't right for him. Wondering why we broke up…" Lily trailed off. Her voice was barely above a whisper.

"I'm sure it didn't have to do with you," James assured.

"Yeah? He said that we couldn't date because I was in Gryffindor! GRYFFINDOR! What the hell? What kind of an excuse is that?" Lily spat.

"I don't know but that's pretty lame."

"I mean…what went wrong?" Lily asked.

"I don't know…he seems like an ass though."

"The worst thing about it all…is that I still…kinda…like him," Lily said as tears started to prickle her eyes.

"You shouldn't. He's an ass. You don't need him," James said soothingly.

"Yeah…I know," Lily responded as tears started flowing from her eyes. "He was just _so_ perfect and great. He…he just seemed like the kind of guy who wouldn't do something like this…act like this," Lily said, her falling tears multiplying.

"Don't cry. Please don't cry. It's alright. I don't think there's anything wrong with you. He's really not that great…" James added on, trying to get Lily to calm down.

"He just…sprung it on me. I didn't even see it coming." James pulled Lily into a tight embrace and she held onto him like her life depended on it. Her tears quickly soaked his shirt, but that was the last of his worries. The two stayed like that for three minutes. Then Lily started to calm down, but she didn't loosen her grip on him.

James stroked her hair and held her close as all her emotions spilled out onto his shirt. He looked down at the quivering redhead. She was quite pretty even _with_ tears rolling down her face. She seemed so small and fragile right now; it made James want to hurt the man who did this to such a beautiful person. He felt Lily start to pull away from him. She looked up into his hazel eyes deeply. The next thing he knew her lips were pressed lightly against his. At first he didn't know how to respond, but the feeling felt _so good_ and so right.

They started out slow but then she started kissing him faster, deeper…almost in a desperate kind of way. She was intoxicating him. James couldn't think, couldn't speak, couldn't feel a thing. He also couldn't breath!

He pulled back with a gasp. Lily's hands were still gripped onto James' shirt and she leaned her head against his shoulder. He looked down at her, trying to take in as much air as he could. As if she felt his eyes on her, she lifted her head and then started to lean in again.

"Wait! No, stop. Stop," James commanded.

Lily looked at him, confusion evident on her face.

"We…we can't do this. You and I both just broke-up and we're just using each other as rebound," James said.

"Less talk, more kiss," Lily said as she leaned in again.

James put his hand up. "No. We need to stop. I think that we should get back to the party," James said as he got up. He stuck out his hand for Lily to grab, but she ignored it and got up by herself. She teetered a little bit but then started walking back towards the party. James followed in her pursuit. Her walking was staggered and then she smacked right into James.

"Lils? You alright?" James asked.

"Yeah…the path keeps moving," she mumbled.

"Lily. You're drunk. You're totally and absolutely pissed," James said as he made to grab her arm. Lily took that as a hint to him wanting to kiss some more so she grabbed his arm and leaned in to kiss him full on the lips.

"Stop it! We need to get you something to calm you down or you'll hurt yourself. Remus…Remus will know what to do," James muttered to himself.

Lily put up a struggle but eventually James got her back to the 7th floor where the party was held. He opened the door and dragged Lily in with him. As soon as he got into the room both he and Lily stopped instantly. Standing in the middle of the room was Keith Fox and Sandy Parker, embraced in a lip lock.

Lily felt her throat tighten and James' vision turned red.

"That's my boyfriend!"

"That's my girlfriend!" The two cried at the same time.

"That's you-" they both said as two and two were put together.

"She said that there was someone else but…" James trailed off.

"He said it was because I was in Gryffindor…" Lily muttered. "I feel like an idiot," Lily said as her eyes started to brim with tears again, her sense of reality coming back to her. She turned on her heal and stormed out of there.

"Lily! Lily wait!" James called as he followed her back out.

"Lily wait," James said as he grabbed her arm.

"What! What do you want!?" Lily cried, tears streaming down her face.

"I…I'm sorry," was all he could come up with now that he had her attention.

"Look, this night has gone from bad to embarrassing to worse. Please leave me alone," she said sadly.

"Hey, that was my girlfriend…well ex-girlfriend too. You're not alone in this," he said.

Lily looked away. "I don't know what to do. I just want to forget."

"Yeah…I know what you mean."

"It feels like we're the only people left. Like, the only people left to find love in this school. Everyone has someone to hold onto…someone to love…and we have no one," Lily said.

"Yeah. Exactly what I was thinking. You know…I have a plan that might solve our problems though."

"Yeah? And what's that?" Lily asked, putting a hand on her waist.

"Why don't we hook up? You and I could date each other," James said.

"That's stupid. You just told me that we were using each other for rebound," Lily snapped.

"Yeah I know what I said. But I was thinking…just for a little bit. We'll go out for…let's say a month? You know the Christmas dance they always have in December? That will be the last event we'll go to as a couple. We'll break up come the new year," James explained.

"I…that sounds stupid," Lily bluntly said. "But…it would be nice…and I wouldn't feel so alone," she mused.

"So…Lily Evans, will you be my girlfriend for the next 52 days of your life?" James asked her, holding her hands in his own.

Lily gave him a sly smile. "Of course I would James Potter."

* * *

Ok...didn' think that i'd have to do this but I am...

LEAVE A REVIEW! SEE THE BUTTON ON YOUR LEFT? CLICK IT NOW!

I take anno reviews so those of you who don't have fanfic accounts, you can still leave a review...muwahahaha...there's no stopping you except your selfish self...hahah LEAVE A REVIEW!

Disclamer: Anything you know is not mine...so Keith is mine! But Lily and James are not...

I based this story on one of those girly-love e-mail chain things. Maybe I'll post it on here for others. So...how do you know that I'm going to finish this story? Well...it's because I'm writing this story for my RP site challenge and so each month there will be a new chapter. The challenge is that I have to start off my story with whatever I come up with and then each month Allison will post a prompt that I have to incorperate into my story...bum bum bum! So see you in February!

Edit: yeah! This is the edited version of the edited version! So idk if you'll get another e-mail about..._this one, _so if you did...and didn't leave a review for the first chapter...think of this as a redemption for the review and go review now! NOW! Now! now (that's an eco by the way...)

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	2. Chapter 2: Day 1

Hey Guys. So the question you probably have it, why did you take so freakin' long to post another chapter? Well here's why. My beta scored the lead in the musical and so she couldn't edit this chapter, which I finished the night it was due, I was going to miss the deadline by minutes, no joke. So she was just able to give me this edited story and now she's reading March's chapter and then that will be up as well. And before you know it, April will be up to! YEAH! Does clap So I hope you enjoy this chapter and review! So many of you are subscribed, but only three reviewed...tear Thanks for the reviews you three!

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Chapter 2: Day 1

Lily's mind slipped in and out of consciousness. There were loud voices all around her. She groaned and tried to sink her head farther into the pillows.

"Gah! Would you two stop _talking _about that? Please? It's disgusting," James' voice snapped.

Lily knew exactly who James was talking to. Lily's roommates and friends, Karen Rozema and Ronnie Finch liked to be very open in everything they did. So if Karen was having bad stomach and back cramps, she made sure everyone else was aware of it.

"Kissing Zach was like kissing a _sex god._ It was _amazing,_" Karen said, drawing out words like "sex god" and "amazing."

"Yeah, well, I don't want to hear it. Keep that stuff to yourself."

"Aw, is wittle Potter upset because he isn't getting any?" Karen joked.

"I am too!"

"Would you stop talking so loud? My head hurts," Lily groaned.

"Lily! Are you alright?" James asked, peering down on her.

She slowly opened her eyes and looked up into James' shinning hazel eyes.

Then it hit her. The last thing she remembered about last night was Keith and James' ex-girlfriend snogging at the victory party. But now she was here…in her bed…with James staring at her.

She instinctively pulled the covers closer to her body.

James moved away slightly.

"Um…would you like a hangover draught?" he asked her.

"What!? I do _not _have a hangover," she said, sitting up quickly.

Bad idea. A rush of blood went flowing from her head; Lily had never experienced this feeling before.

"Yeah, ya do. Lay down before you hurt yourself," James said pushing on her shoulder slightly.

"Ok, Potter. You be the man and take care of our friend Lily. Make sure she doesn't die and she gets better soon. Be good you two!" Karen called and the two girls left Lily and James alone.

"How the hell did I get hung over? I wasn't even drinking last night," Lily groaned as James fished around for a hangover draught by Lily's nightstand.

"Yeah. That's because the butterbeer was spiked with firewiskey," James said as he handed her the glass.

Lily took a sip and then cringed with dislike.

"How come you weren't affected?" she asked.

"No, I was affected. Just not as much as you. I've had a lot of firewiskey, so, I'm used to it," James responded.

"Damn, my head hurts," Lily groaned, putting her hand on her forehead. "What happened?"

"You…drank too much?"

"No, I mean after…after the party. After our…agreement," Lily said, waving her hands around.

"Um…you threw-up…in the hallway."

Lily groaned again.

"Like…6 times, and then you passed out."

Lily rolled her eyes in disgust. "I'm so embarrassed…"

"Yeah, well…anyway, I brought you back here."

"How did you do that? The stairs should have changed when you where on them. And why are you still here! You shouldn't be in the girl's dorm!" Lily cried.

"I have my ways. Besides, I couldn't leave you by yourself. What if you got sick again and died? Then it would be my entire fault. Your roommates didn't mind, so I slept on that chair," he said, pointing to the wooden chair that was situated behind where James now stood.

"I think that the draught is kicking in," Lily said as she sat up slowly. She stretched her arms above her head and then straightened out her clothes.

James stepped back as she slowly got out of bed.

"Um…I'm gonna go take a shower, alright?" Lily said awkwardly.

"Yeah. Ok, Cool."

Lily moved around James as she picked out her clothes. She entered the bathroom and slowly closed the door behind her.

When Lily walked into the dorm after her shower, James was no longer there. She slowly got dressed and walked to her trunk.

Long ago, she had decided that she wouldn't be one of those girls who would mope in self-pity. She was going to move on in her life. To start that, she needed to get rid of all evidence of Keith.

She pulled out her trunk from under her bed and started pulling everything out of it.

888

An hour later James walked into the girls dorm with two **bagel's **in his hand. He looked at the pile of junk surrounding Lily. He stepped over a pile of books and sat down next to her.

"Whatcha' doing?" he asked her.

She slowly turned her head towards him and grabbed the offered bagel. She took a bite and chewed it slowly, as if in thought. She swallowed and answered.

"Cleaning out my trunk. I haven't cleaned it out since 3rd year. That's 4 years of…crap…just collecting."

"Like this?" James asked her while holding out a broken quill.

"Yes. Exactly like that," Lily said pointedly.

James chuckled at her comment. Together the two started sorting through the crap and keep able items she would keep.

"You've _got_ to be kidding me!" James cried.

"What? What are you looking at?" Lily asked trying to peer at what James was holding.

"A rubber duck? You own a rubber duck!" James cried.

"Not just a rubber duck. I own **rubber duckies. **It's Keith's and my rubber duckie family," Lily said sheepishly.

"You and Keith have…a rubber duckie family?" he asked with raised eyebrows.

"Yes! Can we please move on?" she asked.

"Yeah sure. Whatever," James said as he tossed the duck into the garbage can.

"Wait! Don't throw them out!" Lily cried.

"Why? You want to keep your sick, twisted duck family that you started with your _ex-_boyfriend? As your current boyfriend, I don't think I'm too fond of that."

"Alright, alright. Good-bye Claire," Lily said sadly as she tossed a duck with a pink bow on its head, into the trash.

"What's this one?" James asked. He held a duck with green glasses in his right hand.

"Steve."

"So long and good night Steve!" James cried. James picked up another duck.

"Good lord! Is this Keith?" He questioned. _This _yellow duck had a spiky Mohawk.

Lily gave a snort of laughter. "Yes. Toss it!"

James sent her a mysterious grin. He then pulled out his wand, tossed the duck in the air, swished his wand and the duck exploded right before Lily's eyes.

She gasped, but then let her laughter fill the room.

"What else have you got here?" James asked as he moved some old spell books out of the way.

"I don't know. I found clothes that belonged to Karen from like three years ago!" Lily said with a smile.

"I'm not surprised. No offense, but you're a bit of a pack rat," James said as he shuffled through other things.

"Ah, look what we've got here," James said with a smile as he picked up a **paint brush**.

Lily's eyes widened.

"Ah, so this _does_ have some sort of importance," James said with a sly smile.

"Nothing. Can I have that please?" Lily said her face turning red.

"Nothing eh? So…you won't mind if I…" James tossed the brush in the air, causing Lily to screech.

He snatched the brush out of the air and let out a snicker.

"What's the love story behind this?" he asked her.

"Just give it to me please," Lily begged.

"Not until you tell me the story," James demanded.

"You'll think it's stupid."

"No, I won't."

"You'll laugh at me."

"I would never laugh at you," James promised.

"I…um…I once told Keith that I would love to paint my house when I was older and then Keith had to say, "So you're going to paint our house?" and I told him yes and then a couple of weeks later he bought me this pain brush for our house."

James pursed his lips together to keeping from smiling.

"Shut up."

"…"

"I hate you!"

"…"

"James Potter!"

"I didn't say anything!"

"That's the point!" Lily cried.

"I…I think that's disgusting." James said.

"I knew it."

"Lily," James said seriously as he put his hand on top of hers, "it's time to let go."

Lily sighed and handed him the brush. She slowly pulled out her wand. James flung the brush in the air, Lily swished her wand in the same manor James had done before, and the brush exploded into pieces.

The two started laughing again. For an hour they sat there going through Lily's things. They found old spell books, embarrassing pictures and corny gifts from Keith. As James carried some books over to Lily's desk, he noticed a **snow globe** on the ground. He bent down, set the books down and picked it up. The globe of the item sat on a silver colored base. Inside the globe was a little town. Colorful houses surrounded the rim along with pine trees. In the center was a pond with a couple of people skating with a miniature bridge in the center. He turned it over a little bit and noticed an inscription at the bottom.

"To the only one who brings me true happiness. The love of my life, Lily. From Keith."

James scoffed at the inscription.

"What are you…?" Lily's face faltered. "Did you read it?"

"What _is this_?" James shot back.

"Did you _read _it?" Lily pressed.

"Love? He told you that he loved you?" James asked his eyes wide.

"What does it matter to you?" she snapped.

"Well, love is a pretty strong word, don't you think?" James asked.

"No."

"So, you could just meet a guy and you'd let him tell you that he loved you?"

"Well…no, but-"

"Lily, I love you," James said.

"Shut up. That's not true."

"But I do. Really, I love you."

"Stop it. Ok. Whatever! You win!"

"Aren't you gonna say it back?" James pressed.

"Damn it, James! Just…give me my snow globe!" Lily cried flailing about her outstretched hands.

"_Aren't _you going to say it _back_?" James asked again, holding the globe out of her reach.

Lily closed her eyes and sighed.

"Why does this mean so much to you?" he asked her. "Is it because he said that he loved you?"

"No! I…" she sighed again and sat down. James walked over to her and sat cross-legged across from her.

"I collect snow globes. This one just happened to be my favorite one and _not _because it said _love_ on it," she explained.

James looked at it again. He turned it upside down, then right side up again and watched the fake snow drift towards the ground.

"I just get lost while watching them," Lily explained, her eyes glued to the action taking place inside the globe. "It's _so_ beautiful and so…so simple."

"Yeah. You're right," James said while turning his head and looking at her. "Here," he said as he handed over her snow globe.

"Thanks," she murmured. She slowly got up and placed the snow globe on her dresser.

"Let's get out of here. I want to meet your friends," Lily said, her mood changing into a happy one.

"You already know my friends, though," James said. His face looked puzzled, but he stood up slowly anyway.

"The only one that I really know is Remus because of prefect stuff. Hell! I barely know you!" Lily cried as she exited the dorm.

James sighed, rolled his eyes and followed her out the door.

888

The two trailed down the stairs and found the remaining Marauders sitting by a roaring **fire** in the middle of the Common Room.

Sirius Black and Peter Pettigrew were playing a game of Wizard's Chess on the ground while Remus Lupin was leaned up against an arm chair, his book held open, but not being read.

"Hey guys!" James said as he sat down next to Remus. Lily sat down next to James and stretched her long legs out. Remus glanced at the two.

"Hey, Prongs. Hello, Lily," Remus replied with a friendly smile.

"Hey Remus," she greeted back. "Who's winning?"

"Well, we don't know _that _but I could tell you who's loosing," Sirius said with a smirk.

"Shut up," Peter grumbled.

"So, Miss Evans, why have you decided to hang out with the illustrious marauders on this wonderful Saturday?" Sirius asked, stealing a glance at her.

"She's my girlfriend,_ that's_ why," James snapped.

"Rebound? Nice," Sirius said with a grin.

"She is not _rebound_." James said with a snarl. "It's an agreement we've set up. We'll be dating for the next couple of weeks."

"So, she's part of the clan?"

"Yes."

"Welcome, then!" Sirius cried, throwing his hands in the air.

"Pawn to H9," Peter said.

"You still have pawns out?" Lily asked

"Just one…." Peter murmured.

"You know anything about chess?" James asked her.

"Actually, I do. My dad and I used to play a lot when I was younger," she explained.

"Cool. So, after I beat Wormtail over here, I'll play you next Evans," Sirius said as he made another move.

"As long as we play muggle chess," Lily said with a smirk. She looked over at the book that Remus was holding.

"What are you reading?" she asked him.

"Oh…_As the Planet Rotates._ It's pretty good. It's about these two kids who are twins and didn't even know they were related. Their dad is a **secret agent** who is being pursued by all these other agents, so he split up the kids and he himself went into hiding. Now they are all meeting up again 15 years later," Remus explained, absorbed in the novel.

"That sounds interesting. By who?" Lily asked.

"Shawna Everwood. I highly recommend it," Remus said while nodding his head.

After the expected win of Sirius, Lily set up her old chess set.

"You can go first," she offered, turning the white pieces towards Sirius.

"Lady's first," he replied with a grin, turning the board again.

"You're gonna need it. I used to whoop Keith's ass all the time and he's the best in his house," Lily said with a chuckle.

"Why'd he break-up with you anyway?" Sirius asked.

"Sirius!" Remus cried.

"No, it's alright. He broke up with me because he liked James' girlfriend better I guess," Lily said, the sarcasm in her voice was evident.

"Ouch. We should send him a howler!" Sirius said with excitement. "I've never sent one of those before."

"We aren't sending anyone _anything_." Lily said.

"**Dear Lizard-Breath**…" Sirius said with a smile.

"Lizard-Breath?" Remus asked with a smirk.

"What? It's not offensive, he's in Slytherin…"Sirius trialed off.

Lily rolled her eyes and moved one of her pieces.

"I hate moving these things," Sirius complained.

"Because it's oh-so-difficult," her words were dripping with sarcasm.

James sat there silently while observing Lily. She was right; they really didn't know that much about each other. All James knew about Lily was that she was muggle born, very smart and skilled in charms, her and Remus were prefects and that she and her ex-boyfriend had been dating for a while. If he remembered correctly, Lily had also dated Sean Cole her 5th year (he was a 7th year) and then Darrel Myns sometime between 5th and 6th year before Keith. Just watching her now though, really gave him an in-sight of who she really was.

He noticed that before each move she'd make, she would tuck her perfect red hair behind her ear (whether there was a piece out of place or not, and lick her bottom lip.

She captured another one of Sirius' knights.

"Damn you!" Sirius cried. He ran his hands through his shiny, sleek black hair. "This is bull! You're cheating."

Lily laughed…and boy, did James like her laugh…and her smile…

"I'm not cheating. I told you that I was good," she said.

"Whatever, I'm letting you win, anyway," he scoffed.

Lily laughed again and moved another one of her pieces.

James also noticed that Lily was fidgety when she was sitting. Every ten minutes or so she would shift positions.

Lily licked her lips again and then her eyes shown.

"Check!" she said with a smirk.

"Argh! Damn, shit! Fu-"

"You swear a lot," Lily said innocently.

Sirius glared at her and reluctantly moved his piece so Lily could capture it.

"Check mate! Great game. Play again?" she asked with a bright smile.

"Rub it in why don't you? Your ex-girlfriend kicks ass at chess," Sirius mumbled.

"Would you stop calling him that?" Lily asked.

"Want to go to Hogsmeade?" James interjected.

"What? Where did that come from?" Lily asked the shock in her voice evident.

"Just…answer the question."

"No because it's not a Hogsmeade weekend. We can't go," Lily said.

"Ah, but that can be arranged," James replied with a wink.

"You're not breaking any rules are you?" Lily asked.

"No, of course not. I don't recall a rule against visiting Hogsmeade on a non-planned visit weekend," James answered.

"James…"

"Come on! It's what boyfriends and girlfriends do. The only place we can go here is the library because everything outside is frozen," James explained

"James…what if we get caught?"

"Please? Puh-lease? Please, please, please, please, please, _please_," James stressed.

"If we get in trouble-"

"Let's go! Come on!" James cried pulling on her hand.

888

After sneaking through the one-eyed hump witch ("so that's how you get butter beer for the parties!"), they ventured thought the streets of Hogsmeade.

They didn't have any plans, so the two aimlessly walked down the street, letting everyone move around them. James let Lily ramble on about how she thought that there should be more Hogsmeade trips. He watched her closely, like before. She would flick her right hand when stressing a point and she kept flexing and unflexing her fingers as if there was an invisible tennis ball there. James kept brushing his hand against hers, not quite wanting to grab it yet.

"If you want to hold my hand just grab it," Lily said suddenly, turning to look at James with mock sternness.

"What? I was just…flirting with you."

Lily stifled a laugh.

"You…call that _flirting_?" she asked.

"Well, I don't know…teasing sort of, like footsie with hands," he replied with a shrug.

"Handsie?" Lily asked with a laugh.

"Sure. _I wanna hold your hand_!" James sang, looking Lily in the eye.

Lily laughed again.

"What? Did I sing it right?" James asked.

"Yeah, you just don't seem like the type who'd know Beatles songs," Lily said, giggling.

"Oh. I know a little bit about muggles,"" James said while taking Lily's hand into his for real.

"So where do you want to go?" James asked.

"Not sure. What's the time?"

"Um…almost 5."

"It doesn't matter. Wherever you want to go."

"Um…would you mind it if we went into Honeydukes?" James questioned, his eyes pleading.

"Yeah, I don't care," Lily said.

So the two turned around and headed towards the sweets shop. Lily found it odd, being at Hogsmeade with no other Hogwarts students around.

Lily enjoyed the silence that surrounded the two of them. A light snow sprinkled around them. The snow brought a low wind. The win ruffled James' hair and mixed the snow into his dark locks. Lily hadn't noticed until now that James' hazel eyes had a glow to them, especially when he was talking. His cheeks were flushed red from the wind and his lips were quite dry. He was an animated talker. His eyes held expression and his voice would change pitches depending on what person he was imitating. His body moved in fluid movements and he would add and release pressure on her hand.

These natural behaviors of James' were interesting to Lily and made her smile.

"What?" James asked, laughing nervously. Lily didn't say anything, though, she just kept smiling.

"What? Is there something on my face?" James asked, running his right hand all across his face.

"Nothing. You just look so…flawless and carefree," Lily said.

"Ha! As if. Shaken like a banshee on the inside," James responded.

"Oh…well…I see Honeydukes up ahead," Lily said, pointing to the colorful shop.

As the couple entered the store a little bell rang over their heads. Since the usual crowds of Hogwarts students weren't present, it made it easier for Lily and James to move through the store more quickly.

"We need to remember to pick up chocolate," James said as he led her to the west side of the sweets shop.

"For Black? Does he need any more caffeine?" Lily commented, the humor in her voice was evident.

"Actually, it's for Remus. He's a bit of a chocoholic," James answered.

"Ah, I see. Hey, I'm gonna go check out their Christmas display real quick," Lily said pointing to the front of the store.

"Ok. I'll meet you in the check-out line," James answered, heading towards the other side of the store.

Lily met up with James a little later. He was carrying two bags, a small one and a long one.

"I see that you're set. Ready?" Lily asked.

"Let's get out of here."

They walked back into the streets. The wind had picked up immensely and the sun was done setting.

"You hungry?" James asked.

"Actually, I am. But I can wait until we get back to Hogwarts," Lily answered.

"I have money, let's go out," he suggested.

"No…you sure? Really, I'm sure you know how to get into the kitchens…"

"Ha! Yeah I can get into the kitchens, but lets go you for dinner, like couples do," James said his eyes glowing even in the darkness. "I'll even take you to that...Madame Pudfoot's place. Right? Girl's like to go there."

"To be honest, I've never been there before. I've heard that it's girly. You sure you want to go there?" Lily asked.

"Yeah. Come on, "he said, grabbing her hand and leading her towards the small little restaurant.

The two walked in and Lily was surprised at what she saw… almost. The place was small with tables littering the area. The maximum amount of chairs around a table was six. The tables were a light blue glass with red heart-shaped chairs. **Kissing cupids **and little heart butterfly's were flying around the room sprinkling red, white and pink dust of some sort. A sign to Lily's right read, "A place where you'll find love."

"It feels like Valentine's day," she said with mild disgust.

"May I help you?" a petite woman of about the age of 20 asked. She was wearing jeans and a tight short-sleeved v-neck red shirt. "For two?" she said, answered her own question. "Follow me."

The woman led the couple towards the left side of the room.

"Your waiters will be with you soon," the woman said. James thanked her. He then pulled out Lily's chair for her.

"Thank you," Lily said with a smile.

"Your welcome."

She opened the menu in front of her and started scanning for something delicious to eat.

"Hello. My name is Marta. I will be your server today. Can I get you something to drink?" she politely asked.

This girl was also wearing a red shirt with jeans. Her hair was blond and fell past her shoulders in ringlets.

"Um…Lils?" James asked.

"I'll have a butterbeer please." She shot a glance as James. "Actually, let's make it a cherry fizz."

"I'll have the same thing," James said, smiling.

"Ok. I'll be right back with those," Marta replied with a smile.

Lily looked back at her menu. It was hard for her to really decide what she wanted because everything was stuff like, "oodles of love noodles" or "kiss kiss bang bang steak."

"Yeah, there's nothing normal on this thing," Lily said while closing her menu.

"The burgers are really good here," James said, looking up from what he was doing.

"Do they even serve burgers?" Lily asked.

"Yeah. 100 Pure Love!" James said with a wink.

"Are you ready to order?" Marta asked, popping up out of nowhere.

James and Lily both ordered burgers which would come out in twenty minutes. Until then, James decided to play a game.

"Really? Alright would you like to start?" she asked him.

"Ok, we'll start off simple. Favorite color?"

"Um…definitely orange."

"Really?! I never would have guessed," James said.

"Yeah. Well, it is. So...what's your favorite color?" she rebounded.

"Um…oddly enough, it would have to be green," James said with a nod.

"Really?! That's a shock. How did this happen?" Lily asked, incredulously.

"Well, actually the shade of emerald would be the type of green that I like," James said. He looked Lily straight in the eyes.

James could tell that she felt a little uncomfortable, so he cleared his throat and straightened up his back.

"Um, ok next. Favorite place to go."

"That's different," Lily commented. "Um…but I guess it would have to be Diagon Ally. Most people would think that I'd like a place like Hogwarts, which I do like. I do love Hogwarts, just Diagon Ally is so much more fascinating to me I guess," Lily explained, not that she needed to.

"Nice. Diagon Ally is pretty wicked," James replied with a grin.

"Um…ok so favorite class?"

"Ha, no thought there. Defense," he replied instantly.

"Really? Well, actually I guess that doesn't surprise me," Lily said as she thought about it.

"Ok, Lily," James said with a grin. "Most embarrassing moment?" he said with a wicked smile.

"Um…ok…so there was this time when me and Karen were passing notes and we were saying really mean things about the Defense teacher at the time…it was Professor Yale," Lily explained. James shuddered. "And um…she found the note and read it out loud to the group. It was really embarrassing."

"That's hilarious! What did you say?" James asked.

"Doesn't matter. Ok, it's my turn lets see, how about…favorite song, muggle or wizard," Lily asked him as Marta came by with their plates.

"Um…yeah well if I was to tell you my current favorite, you would laugh at me," James said while turning red.

"Aw, no, I wouldn't laugh at you," Lily said in all earnestly.

"No, I don't care. It's embarrassing."

"Hey! It was _your_ idea to play this game. Plus, I just told you my most embarrassing moment." Lily said while lightly slapping his hands.

"Alright. Um…my favorite song would be Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting," James answered sheepishly.

Lily couldn't help the snort that slipped out of her mouth.

"I knew you would laugh!" James cried.

Lily took a large bite of the hamburger to keep from giggling. She swallowed and then spoke to James.

"I don't think it's stupid, just weird, for like…someone like you. That's all. Elton John?" Lily said with a snicker. "But, at least it's better than this crap that's playing in the background here," Lily said, motioning outward to signal to the music playing in the background of the restaurant.

Some sort of love song played by a strings quintet was going on. Lily assumed that it was dance night since couples of all sorts were slowly dancing with each other in the middle of the room on a dance floor that wasn't there when Lily and James had entered half an hour before. Just then one of the flying cupids came by James and Lily's table and started sprinkling **candy hearts** all around and on their table.

"Ugh…why is everything so…_romantic_ here? It's like nothing is normal," Lily said, the frustration rising up in her. She pushed her chair back and got up.

"Lily…Lily what are you doing?" James asked.

"_Why_ is everyone so caught up in love? Why are you slow dancing? You don't need to be sexual _all _the time!" Lily cried walking out on the dance floor. The couples all around stopped dancing and looked at her.

"I mean, don't you ever do anything fun or weird or crazy?" she asked with wide eyes.

Lily looked around the group. Everyone was looking at her like she was crazy, which James was starting to believe.

"You put your…right hand in…you pull your…right hand out…" Lily started singing. Everyone just kept looking at her while she did the absurd motions. "You put your right hand in…and you…shake it all about. You do the **hokey-pokey**," Lily kept singing while turning in a circle, "and you turn yourself around…that's what it's all about," Lily said clapping on the last beat. She looked at the group of people surrounding her. She now realized that what she did was pretty embaressing. Doing the hokey-pokey in front of a group of people who were a­.) older than her and b.) Too loved up to do the hokey-pokey, was a pretty stupid thing. But then in the background, she heard it. "You put your left hand in, you pull your left hand out," a female voice started singing. "You put your left hand in and you shake it all about." "You do the hokey-pokey and your turn yourself about," the rest of the group started singing. "That's what it's all about!" All the couples on the dance floor started dancing this new muggle dance. Lily was smack dab in the middle of the group. She was laughing and moving, shaking her head and body, matching the words in the song. James watched her from their table laughing to himself. Lily was very different from any other girl he had ever dated. She was fun and bubbly and she really didn't care what others thought about her. If something was bothering her, she made sure everyone knew about it. There was something about Lily that made him want to behave just like she did. In fact, right now he wanted to go take a swim in the lake. It didn't matter that it was probably in the negatives and they would both get sick, as long as it was Lily and James in that frozen pond doing something spontaneous that mattered to him. So, he got up and walked over to Lily and joined her in the dance. She was smiling and laughing and helping him shake his hips in a crazy way. Just being around Lily was enough for James at the moment.

After the situation at Madam Pudfoots, the couple went back to the school. They snuck back in though the secret passage and up through the stone witch. Quickly and quietly, they crept back to Gryffindor tower.

"See you tomorrow, James," Lily whispered with a smile.

"Yeah. Tomorrow. Sleep…well," James said, falling into her smile.

He watched her hop up the stairs until he heard the click of her door closing. Then James bounded up the stairs, only falling twice, and slamming shut the boys' dorm door.

* * *

If you're reading this, it means that you're not writing a review! WRITE A REVIEW! or else I'll cry...

more tears


	3. Chapter 3: Day 8

Eh…message at bottom…well…a nicer one at least.

Author Note: Alright, let's have a chat. Last chapter I got a lot of complaints about my story plot. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion and I respect that. Where the problems started to arise was when people where telling me that the message sucked and I should change it, I'm not creative, terrible message. Look…I wrote the story based off an e-mail that I received. The outline of dating just because was what the e-mail was about in the form of this story, and that's what I based mine off of. The whole story doesn't revolve around two people being happy because they're dating. Who said that's what the story was about? I don't really get how you can make an assumption of my story…based off two chapters. You don't even know where this is going and you obviously didn't read the summary. I'm not saying…don't send flamers…because personally they make me laugh…the fact that you were so…offended by what someone wrote that you had to chew them out…I think that's hilarious. These reviews upset me because they feel like an attack on me and you don't even know the type of person that I am. If you've read outlines like this before…why did you start reading it in the first place? That's like reading a fic that you know is slash, which you hate, but reading it anyway. If you think the "plot" is sending out a bad message…why did you stick around to read the next chapter? And you think just because you left a review that said you should change the outline, I'm really gonna do that? I also think that those who didn't even leave a screen name…the anno people…are pathetic. You couldn't even leave a contact? Look…the whole idea of fanfic is to write what you want to _see. _If someone wants to see Harry and a tissue get together…they can. Is that weird and wrong…yes I think it is. But I don't think it's mine or your job to criticize them and their ideas. Oh, and by the way…the plans were made while Lily and James were drunk…keep that in mind.

Ok…now that that's out of my system…thank you everyone else for the reviews. They were very enjoyable.

Disclaimer: I don't own…well as one review liked to point out…any of it since this has been written for "ages." Sorry…when anyone finds any story like mine…please send me the link.

* * *

Chapter 3: Day 8

The news of Lily and James' newfound relationship spread around the school like wildfire. No one had realized that the smart muggleborn and Slytherin cutie had split up recently. There was a lot of talk about the new couple. No one had ever suspected the Gryffindor prefect and school's trouble maker would ever hook up, yet there they were in plain public. The weirdest thing about this whole ordeal was that no one ever witnessed any…_affection,_ mainly, pass between the two. No one ever saw them kiss or hold hands. There were no sly glances when one wasn't looking or cloudy eyes that stared deeply into the other. But they _were_ always together. They would walk to classes together and sit in the common room together. They always worked on homework during spare times (James Potter actually turned in homework!) They even sat next to each other during meals, shared the newspaper and drank from the same cup! ("I don't see why that's so weird," Lily calmly said.)

A week after James' and Lily's agreement found James waking up with a very bad headache. He could barley think or lift his head off the pillow. All week he had been feeling a little bit under the weather but his symptoms today were so bad…he couldn't even sniff in _or_ out for his nose. It only made his head hurt more. He pressed his head into the pillow, hoping that said pillow would eat his head and make the pain go away. Then he laughed slightly at himself for he figured that Lily felt this way _last_ weekend. James opened his eyes to find the lighting dull in his room. He turned his head towards the window to find out that the sky was dark and promising of rain. Great, that's exactly how he wanted to spend his Saturday-- inside.

The door to his dorm opened slowly making a creaking noise. James tried lifting his head up, but then let it hit the pillow again.

"Hey, there," Lily said as she sat on the edge of his bed.

He looked at her through squinted eyes.

"Remus and Sirius said that you were sniffling throughout the night. Well, actually Remus said you were sniffling….Sirius said that you were hacking louggies," Lily explained with a chuckle.

"Ha ha. I bet you think that's funny," James cried, but because of his nose it sounded more like, 'I bet you tink that funny!' He scowled, and then continued, "I can barely breathe!"

"I brought you some soup and cough syrup," Lily said as she pulled out a spoon and a bottle full of some red liquid.

"Okay…muggle medicine? I don't need that. I'm not even sick! I just have a case of the **sniffles**! Besides, why can't I just go to the hospital wing?" James asked.

"The sniffles? Right. And you're not going to the hospital wing because your pride won't let you." James nodded at this. "So I decided, well, if he doesn't want to get this treated, I might as well make him feel a little bit better."

Lily poured some of the liquid into the spoon and James slowly sat up. He grabbed the spoon and swallowed the medicine in one go.

"UGH! That stuff is horrible!" James cried.

"Yeah, well if it tasted good, then it wouldn't be medicine," Lily responded with a wink.

"That's horrible. Eugh! Merlin!" James complained.

"Stop complaining. Sirius, Remus and Peter have put together some sort of game for today and they need you to be at your full potential."

"Um…have they seen the sky?"

"Yes. It's some indoor game. I'll let you get dressed and I'll leave the soup on your desk okay?" Lily said, patting his leg and getting off his bed. "See you down there," she smiled.

James sluggishly moved down the stairs into the common room. It seemed as if the whole Gryffindor house had been packed into that small room. The Gryffindor common room was big, but not big enough for the entire Gryffindor house to be present.

"Ah, James! _There_ you are!" Sirius exclaimed into James' ear while clasping a hand on his shoulder.

"Yeah. Here I am. What is this? What are you planning?" James asked while turning towards Sirius.

"Well, the three of us decided while you were hacking loggies-" James scowled at this, "to host a school wide game of hide-and-seek!"

"What's that?"

"You…you don't know what hide-and-seek is? I'll explain. Basically, one person is "it" and then everyone else goes and hides. There's a base that everyone needs to get to so if one person gets to the base before the "it" person finds them, then the "people" win. If the "it" person finds everyone before anyone touches the base, then the "it" person wins. Do you follow so far?" Sirius asked.

"Yeah, sort of. Keep going."

"Ok, well to make it more suitable for the "it" person, the "people" have to wait at least an hour before they can try to make it to the base. Also there will be four "it's" to start and I've volunteered us to go first since we have an advantage," Sirius said with a wink. "Of course we won't use it until about half an hour into the game."

"Well…as long as everyone who's playing signs a list so we know who to look for, then I'm in. Sounds like fun especially with the **freak thunderstorm** outside brewing up," James said with a smile.

An hour later found the four marauders and most of the student body in the great hall where Sirius was yet again explaining the rules.

"Does everyone understand? Good! Did everyone sign up, 'cuz if you didn't…" Sirius threatened, trying to look everyone in the eye of the Great Hall.

"I think they did, Padfoot," Remus assured. "Ok, you'll get 5 minutes to find a place to hide so you better run fast. The Great Hall will be the base. Good luck and go!" Remus cried.

Lily ran up to James, gave him a hug, a peck on the cheek, and then ran off. James slowly brought his hand up to the place where Lily had kissed him, a dazed expression on his face.

Sirius stood their impatiently. He started fidgeting his feet and arms.

"Remus-"

"No."

"Now?"

"_No."_

"_Mooney-"_

"Sirius!"

"Remus, please, please, please, please, _please!_" Sirius begged.

"No! Give them 5 _minutes_. I promised."

"Like anyone's counting, anyway," Sirius whined.

"It's like…watching…a**…never ending…**five year old!" Remus cried as Sirius kept whimpering and pulling on his shirt.

"Has it been five minutes yet?" Peter asked.

"NO! Actually, yes it has. We can go," Remus said.

The boys split themselves up among the four cardinal directions.

Lily had felt as if her relationship with James was going well. They spent a lot of time together hanging out and getting to know each other. James was different than she thought he would be. The impression James had always left her with was an unpleasant one. She'd always thought him arrogant, stupid, conceited and rude. He was the only- child, rich boy who flaunted his skills because he was from the higher class of pureblooded wizards. Whether James changed as a person since 5th year or his outer appearance was different than his personality, Lily didn't know, but she liked him now for who he really was. She was getting used to him and his odd friends and the odd games that they played. At first it seemed childish and naïve, but now she realized that everything, well almost everything, they did was all just for good fun. Like now, Remus and Sirius had presented their Hide-and-Seek game to Lily this morning while she was sitting on the couch reading a book. After she thought about it and looked outside, she realized that what's better to do during a storm than to play a game?

Lily took off towards the North Tower. As she rounded the corner and up the stairs, she slowed her pace down to a walk. She clambered up the steep steps, and when she reached the top, she took a look around. She didn't really know where she was going to hide; only that she was going to get as far away from the Great Hall as possible. She started walking down the hall, looking for any hidden alcoves or tight wedges that she could squeeze into until she felt it safe enough to make it back to the Great Hall. As she was walking, she could have sworn she heard a tap of feet behind her. She whipped her head around but saw no one there. Deciding to shrug it off, she continued on with her walk. Turning her head to the right she glanced out the window. The rain was coming down hard. The thick droplets hit the window with a force that made Lily believe that the glass could shatter any moment. Deciding not to take the risk, she moved away from the window and continued on down the hall.

Sirius was planning on winning the game by. Now, nowhere in the rules did it say not to use any skills you have. So, making sure no one was looking, Sirius transformed into his animagus form. Yes he knew this was risky and foolish and if anyone found out who he was, well his life would definitely be over, but the risk of getting caught is also what tempted him to do this in the first place. He gave his body a moment to relax into its new structure and then took in a whiff of the air. A variety of scents filled his nose, but surprisingly, Lily's caught his attention, so he took off up the stairs leading towards the North Tower.

Peter had the same idea as Sirius did. Unfortunately, Peter wasn't as smart as Sirius and changed. Now that he had a view of the ground and an excellent nose to find people, he scattered off in his search. Unfortunately again, he couldn't climb the steps in this form, so he changed back into his human form. After climbing 55 steps towards the East Wing Peter reached the top and changed back into a rodent again. As he scampered on his nose caught something delightful. He scampered over to a little hole in the wall. He squeezed himself through and was surprised to find cheese lying there. After fully inspecting it and deciding that it was okay to eat, Peter bit down in the cheese and enjoyed his break that he was taking.

Remus, not wanting to use the map and not being able to change into his animal form at will, took off at an easy jog down the West Wing. He looked between every alcove and every painting in the wall, but to no avail. Finally he heard some rustling. He quickly but quietly crept towards the noise. Whoever it was hid behind a drapery. His plan was to rip open the drapery and tag them, but as he got closer he could hear noises being made. He heard a sucking noise and then a low groan. Slowly Remus peeled back the drapery and saw two people. A girl was pushed up against the wall while a guy kissed and sucked her neck. Mortified by what he saw, Remus quickly let go of the drapery and sprinted as far away from that hallway as possible. A distinct blush lighting up the back of his neck, visible even from afar, rose.

James didn't even head towards the South Hallway; he just went straight for Gryffindor Tower. He was going to get the map, keep it on him until he felt it was time to use it. He hoped that he would waste no-map minutes, the time when he was not aloud to 'cheat,' while walking to and fro from the Gryffindor Tower. He climbed the steps to the seventh floor and walked down to the end of the hallway.

When Sirius got to the top of the steps he quickly changed back into his human form. His hearing still keen, he heard light movement about 5 corridors down. Sensing that it was Lily, Sirius took off in a sprint, hoping to catch Lily before she hid.

Lily rounded another corner. She never realized how much Hogwarts resembled a labyrinth. She moved slowly and aimlessly down the hall while looking down at her feet. She hated the shoes that she was wearing right now. Actually, she hated the whole outfit. Black stretch pants with a plain white shirt on. Her white shirt had some sort of floral design. She didn't care much for the shirt since it was something her mother bought, and her mother had absolutely no style. The shoes she wore were regular gym shoes, but they made her feet look bigger than they really were. As Lily was walking and questioned about her feet, she heard more noises behind her. She stopped, turned around, and listened. Those were foot steps. Someone was following her. Who that someone was, she didn't know. Lily didn't want to be out in the middle of the hallway alone. She turned and took off in a sprint down the hall. She could hear the footsteps getting closer but when she turned around, there was no one behind her. Freaking herself out by not knowing who it was, her heart rate accelerated. The pounding of her heart was the only thing she could hear. She came close to tears when she skidded to a halt at a dead end. She turned around, panicking, and not knowing what to do. Just then, something grabbed her ankle and pulled her. She started screaming, but a hand was clasped over her mouth. Someone held her captive. One hand was around her abdomen securely while the other was clamped around her mouth. She tried screaming but couldn't make a sound. Her eyes were wide as her breathing got heavier and heavier. It was dark, wherever she was. So it must have been an alcove of some sort, one that she'd never spotted. The footsteps turned the corner and from Lily's hiding place she saw someone walk into view and stop just where she was moments before. It was only Sirius Black who had been following her. Unfortunately, she couldn't call out to him and ask him to save her. She watched Sirius stand there; it looked as if he was sniffing the air. He looked down at the end of the hallway, turned around and walked back towards the way he came.

The hand around Lily's waist lessened a little bit, but not the hand on her mouth.

"Lily, it's just me," the voice whispered. Even in the dark, she knew exactly who "me" was. It was Keith.

He let go of her completely. She turned around and smacked him on the arm.

"You stupid, stupid…moron! You had me practically peeing my pants!" she cried.

"I'm sorry. You looked scared and lost and I could hear your footsteps coming and they sounded frightened if that makes sense. And then I recognized Black's heavy footsteps, so…I grabbed you," Keith said with a shrug.

"Yeah, well, it would have been nice if you had said something like, 'Hey it's me, Keith, not some crazy evil stalker,'" Lily stressed.

Keith chuckled. "Ok, I'll remember that next time."

"I'm glad you think this is funny. I'm leaving," she said as she stood up.

"Don't stand, you'll hit your-"

THUNK!

"-head," Keith muttered. Lily flopped back down.

"Ow," she murmured as she rubbed her head.

"Yeah, it's a low ceiling." Lily rubbed her head some more and then started to crawl out.

"Are you and Potter really going out?" Keith asked.

That made Lily stop. She turned around and looked at him.

"Yes, why? Does it bother you?" she asked.

"To be honest, a little bit. You couldn't do better?" he asked her.

That made Lily really angry. "Excuse me? Better? Couldn't you do better than James Potter's _girlfriend_? You think that _you're _better suited for me than _him_?" she snapped.

"I do think that I'm a better boyfriend for you than him."

"Well, you've got a lot of balls to be saying that, Keith Fox, because you're not even half the man that James will always be."

"Lily, calm down and sit next to me. Stay a while," Keith said, patting the spot next to him, disregarding her retort.

"Ugh, no, I'm not going to sit _next _to you. You just insulted my boyfriend."

"I have every right to be jealous, whether you're my girlfriend or my ex-girlfriend. I'm not gonna hurt him or say anything, I was just venting," Keith explained, his expression calm.

"Ok, you broke up with _me_, remember? You broke up with _me_ because I was a _Gryffindor,_ remember?"

"Can we just put the past behind us and be friends?" he asked her.

Lily looked down at him. Keith sat there with a calm expression on his face. It was weird that they were in an argument and Keith acted as if they were talking about the weather. She sighed and sat down next to him. Keith wove his hand around her waist.

"Okay, friends don't put their hands around other friends," Lily said as she removed Keith's hand lightly from her body.

"Alright, sorry. So, how have you been?" he asked her.

"Good, I guess. I spend a lot of time with James and his friends," Lily said smiling at the thought.

"Yeah, I've noticed. You sit by them and stuff," Keith said with a shrug.

"Yeah, well one normally sits by their boyfriend," Lily said, her eyebrows raised.

Keith chuckled. "Okay, fine whatever. You got me."

Lily didn't say anything after Keith's comment, and a silence overcame them. Lily cleared her throat.

"You been alright as well?" she asked him.

"I guess. It's hard though. I miss hanging out with you," he said.

"Well what about what's-her-face? Sandy, right? You two seemed pretty cozy at the party last week," Lily said. She couldn't help but keep the growl that went with her comment.

"Yeah, well that was a one time thing. A_ stupid_ one time thing."

"It was," Lily mumbled.

"Well, if you remember, I'm known for doing stupid things, like swimming in the lake during November."

Lily laughed at this. She thought of the memory Keith was talking about. While they were dating, Keith had insisted that the two of them go swimming, even though it was November. After claiming that they'd catch a cold, Lily stood by the edge of the lake while Keith striped himself of his clothes except for his boxers and white undershirt.

_"Keith! Please don't do this," Lily said. Her voice was serious, but her eyes held amusement._

_"Come on, it'll be so much fun!" Keith cried. He stepped back, took a running jump, and cannon-balled into the lake._

_"SHIT! It's cold in here!" he cried._

_"No kidding! Get out now. Are you satisfied?" Lily asked._

_"Yeah, I am."_

That afternoon, Keith's nose clogged up and a cold hit him hard making him skip class for three days after.

"Or like the time you thought it'd be fun to go flying at night," Lily said with skeptical eyes.

Keith had wanted to take Lily flying real bad so one night they snuck out to the broom shed and stole a broom. While no one had gotten hurt, McGonagall saw the two fly past her room and she had come out immediately. They both had to serve a weeks worth of detention.

"We did some pretty crazy stuff together," Keith said.

"Yeah, we did."

"I miss it. I miss doing this, just talking. I miss _you_," Keith said as he turned and looked Lily in the eye.

Lily returned his gaze. She could see the lust forming in his eyes, and it scared her a bit, but she didn't move.

Keith looked from her eyes to her lips and then back to her eyes. He then leaned in slowly-- and kissed her.

Lily froze. She gasped, which gave room for Keith to deepen the kiss. Lily roughly pushed him away from her.

"Get away from me!" she cried.

"Lily, it was a mistake breaking up with you," Keith said, his breathing slightly hitched. "I want you to go out with me again. Dump Potter and go out with me again."

"Ew, Keith, no. You…you're something of the past. I…I like James right now, and that's who I want to be with. You've lost your chance and I've got to go," Lily said. She started to move away from him.

"It's not that James Potter isn't good enough for you, it's that you're too good for him," Keith called out.

James made it back to the Gryffindor dorm in record time. He jogged up the stairs into the boys' dormitory. He ruffled through the items in his trunk until he found what he was looking for. He pulled it out and stared at it proudly. One quick glance wouldn't hurt, would it? James muttered, _'I solemnly swear that I am up to no good,'_ and the black lines spread, creating the map of Hogwarts. James glanced down the East Wing and saw Peter not moving by a wall. James didn't let the confusion sway him from his original plans, and he kept searching. He saw Remus in the East Wing walking down the corridor. No one was in his area for miles. Glancing towards the north side, James saw something that made his stomach drop. In a hidden alcove, positioned too close for comfort where the names Lily Evans and Keith Fox. James took off at a sprint towards the North corridor.

James ran past Sirius as he was heading towards the area where Keith and Lily were.

"Prongs? What's going on?" Sirius asked, worry etched on his face.

"Nothing, just keep…keep doing whatever you're doing," James said breathlessly as he rounded the corner. Just down a little way, James saw red hair moving towards him.

"Lily!" he called. Her eyes lit up and she froze. Misunderstanding her action James pounded his feet even faster. He wrapped his arms around her when he reached her and Lily sighed.

"I guess you caught me," she said.

"Hell, yes, I did! What were you thinking?!" he cried. He couldn't believe that she was giving up that easily.

"I-I don't know. I just needed…"

"To touch him again? Is that it? I wasn't good enough?" James spat releasing her fragile body.

"I-what? Who's him?" she asked.

"Weren't you with K-" but Lily didn't know about the map. So James couldn't say that he saw her.

"I was in an alcove and I decided to hide somewhere else and then I saw you," she said with a puzzled look on her face.

"I…oh, yeah. Ok, well, I tag you," James said. He couldn't understand why Lily didn't bring up Keith. He did see them on the map, he was sure of it. So why didn't she say anything? Deciding to trust her, James didn't say anything either as they headed towards the Great Hall.

While Lily's cough medicine seemed to hold James' cold off for about 3 hours, after that James looked as if he was going to die. He was sniffling and coughing and sneezing everywhere. Lily and the guys practically begged him to go to the Hospital Wing, but James refused.

"James you look deathly ill. You're pale and clammy and your forehead is heating up," Lily said with concern.

"I'm bloody well not sick! Just- leave me alone," he snapped as he hugged his cloak closer to his body. They were sitting in the Great Hall eating dinner. James had put food on his plate but he hadn't touched any of it.

"James, you haven't touched any of your food," Lily commented.

"I know. I'm not hungry."

"Yeah, well, whether you're sick or not, you should eat something. It will make you…look better," she said.

"Merlin, Lily! Just leave me alone!" he cried. Lily jumped back in surprise. She didn't really know what to do but sit and try to not let her emotions get the better of her. "Um…"

"I'm going back to the dorm," James snarled. He got up from his seat and stalked down the hall and out the door.

The four boys just sat there eating as if nothing had ever happened.

"He gets moody like that a lot. It's nothing personal. Give him a few moments and then go talk to him," Remus said with a small smile.

"Yeah, in the mean time, will you hand me his plate?" Sirius asked, his eyes shinning brightly with hunger.

"Um…here," she said as she handed Sirius James' untouched plate.

After 15 minutes of silence, Lily left the hall, following James' path back up toward Gryffindor Tower.

Lily voiced the password for the Fat Lady and entered the room. It wasn't very hard to find James. He was lying on the couch with a wool blanket pulled over his head. The only reason why she knew it was him was because his messy mop of hair was sticking out at the top. She walked quietly over towards him. She pulled the cover down from over his face slowly and looked at him. She could see his eyes screwed shut tightly under his glasses. Lily gently tugged them off.

"Oh James," she sighed as she brushed at his hair lightly. Lily stood up and was going to head to bed when his hand grabbed hold of her wrist.

"Don't stop," he mumbled.

Lily sat down on the floor next to him. She started running her hands through his hair.

"How you feeling?" she asked.

"Like shit," he whimpered.

"You look like it. James, I think you have a fever or something."

"I don't know. My head is itchy as well."

"You must have fleas," she commented.

At that comment his eyes flew open wide. He looked up at her with horror. How would he explain to everyone why and how he got flees?!

"I'm kidding," she said with a laugh as she lazily dragged her fingers through his hair. "Tomorrow we're going to Diagon Ally to fix your problem," Lily said.

"Diagon Ally? Why aren't you taking me to the hospital wing," he asked.

"Since you're so intent on not going there, the only other place I can think of was Diagon Ally. If Diagon Ally doesn't have it, then I don't know who would," she answered.

"How are we going to get there?" he asked her.

"I'm the girlfriend to the most famous prankster in school who is friends with the top 3 pranksters in school. I'm sure those four boys will be able to come up with something," she said with a wink.

That night, James had a dream about getting bitten by a **German Sheppard.** Fleas jumped from the god to James' hair before he could stop it.

_"I promise, Lily. It's just a little fly," he begged, trying to get her to understand._

_"_That_ is the most disgusting thing I have _ever_ seen in my entire life," she snapped. "Don't touch me, don't even get near me. I'm not catching your freak disease."_

_"Lily, please. Don't be like this. What if I get it fixed? I can fix this!" he cried._

_"Yeah, well, it's too late now. To bad you didn't try to solve this sooner," she spat and walked away._

_"Lily! Lily!"_

"James!"

_"Lily! Please. I need you!" he cried when he heard his name._

"James. Wake up, now, you sound pathetic."

James slowly opened his eyes. He looked at Sirius who was leaning over him. Sirius was already dressed. Sirius was never even _up_ before James, let alone dressed.

"You've been mumbling Lily's name for the past five minutes. What are you thinking about?" Sirius asked with a smirk.

James looked absolutely horrible. His eyes and nose were red from being rubbed, and his skin was very pale. His hair was more unkempt than usual and his movements were slow and unstable.

"Get out of here you perv," James snapped as he pushed Sirius away from him. He got up and slowly walked towards the bathroom.

"Lily wants to leave in half an hour okay?" Sirius called.

"Nugg," James responded back.

The group ended up catching the Night Bus on the outskirts of Hogwarts to Diagon Ally. They all greeted Tom the innkeeper and headed out to the back where Lily pulled out her wand and tapped the bricks. The group entered the ally. It wasn't as crowded as it normally was right before school started. There were few people and most of the shops looked dead. The teens slowly walked down the streets looking for some sort of shop that would help their problem. After about an hour of wandering, Sirius and James started to give up hope on finding something to help James' itching problem.

"Let's get something to eat," Sirius whined.

"I'm not hungry," James snapped as he wiped his nose with the back of his hand.

"Prongs, that is disgusting," Remus commented, staring down in horror at his friend's hand.

"Here, I brought some tissues for you," Lily said as she handed him one.

"Thanks," he said with a smile. James wiped his nose and then took Lily's hand into his own.

"Ok, you're not holding my hand with that one," she said while looking down at his germy hand.

"Sorry," he said. He grabbed her by the shoulders and moved around her so he could hold her with his clean hand.

Sirius kept complaining, so the group stopped at a little shop to get a bite to eat. As they were walking, Lily spotted a dark shadowed shop on a corner. A couple of the windows were broken. The sign read, "Magically Clean."

"Let's stop in there," Lily commented. "We might not find something for James' cold, but maybe we will find something for his head."

"It looks dark,"

"And creepy,"

"And dangerous,"

"And…dark," Sirius said, repeating what James had said.

"You're all being babies. Come on," she said, forcefully pulling James towards the shop.

The group entered the store and a little bell went off over their heads. Sirius, overreacting, covered his head with his hands in a panic. When he realized that everything was safe, he brought them back down.

Lily walked towards the front desk. 'Ring bell for assistance' the sign read. She gave it a small tap.

"Oh, I like that!" Sirius cried with excitement. He rang the bell again. When he noticed that the shop owner wasn't coming he rang it again and again and again.

"Alright!" Lily cried, putting her hand on top of his to stop his actions.

"Alright is correct. Merlin, do I hate kids like you," the shop owner spat. He looked upset. The man had to be at least 50 years old, if not older. He had a pot belly and his shirt was covered in grease stains. He wore goggles on his head and a work apron around his waist. He smelled like he'd just been to the local **Irish Pub**.

"Hi. I'm, I was wondering if you could help us with a problem that we have," Lily started.

"Don't kids your age always have problems?" he snapped.

"Um…I guess. Well…you see…my boyfriend's head is itchy, like a rash or something. It's been going on for a couple of days now. We can't really figure out what it is and while the title of your shop suggests cleaning supplies…we were hoping that you might have something to cure him. He's already got a cold and to top it off an itchy head and if we could eliminate one problem…well…"

"Does she always talk this much?" the shop keeper asked the Marauders. Sirius nodded his head and Remus slapped him.

"Do you have anything or not?" Lily snapped. Now she was getting frustrated with this man.

"I think…let me see," he said as he walked away from the kids and down an isle. The group followed him looking at the exotic things on the shelves. The man brought them down an isle full of odd looking plants. Some were odd colors such as macaroni yellow or puce. Others looked painful to the touch with spokes and sharp thorns sticking out. Sirius found a plant with eyes blinking up at him. He quickly moved away from that one.

The man picked up some things and put others back on random shelves

"You said that you were having a hair problem? Your head is itchy?" the man asked.

"Yes," James whined.

"Well, then, I have just the thing," the man said as he pulled out a shampoo bottle out of his apron.

**"Since when did you have that?"** Sirius asked in amazement.

"Since you brats walked in. I forgot it was there, that's all."

Lily looked at the bottle. It read '**Miracle Shampoo**. Works on any abnormal hair disease.

"Um…I don't think James has a disease, just a hair-"

"Do you want it or not?" the man asked, waving the bottle around her.

"How much is it?" Lily asked with a forced smile.

"25 **gold coins**," the man said as he walked back to his desk.

"25? For a bottle of shampoo? My wand cost less than that!" Lily cried.

"Again, I ask, do you want it or not?"

Lily fished around in her bag for some galleons.

"I'll get it Lily," James said while putting his hand over hers. He reached into his pockets and pulled out 4 galleons, 2 sickles and a nut.

"Guys, can you help me out?" James helplessly asked.

The four of them fished in their pockets trying to put together 25 galleons.

"Don't be silly. I have it all right here," Lily said. "If it makes you better you can pay me back," she said with a roll of her eyes.

She put the money on the table and grabbed the bottle.

"Would you like a bag?" he gruffly asked.  
"No, thank you, but thanks for your help today," she said with a polite smile. She quickly walked out of there, the four boys following in her pursuit.

"I wanted to go up to that shop owner and smack him. He was so rude to you, and I would have taken care of it Lily, but my head felt like it was going to explode-"James started.

"I know that you would have. Whatever, he was a jerk, I don't really care," Lily said nonchalantly.

The group headed back to Hogwarts. James took a long shower, using his new product and returned downstairs. He sat down next to Lily and put his arms around her.

"Mmm, you smell nice," Lily commented as she snuggled closer to him. "You seem to be feeling better."

"Much better," he sighed, resting his head on hers.

"You two are so nasty-"

"Shut up. You're just jealous," Lily snapped.

"Rawr! You're starting to act like that **irritable shop owner**," Sirius snapped.

"Did you notice how many **broken windows** he had?" Peter asked.

"The place was a mess. I kind of felt bad for him," Remus said.

"Well, I didn't. If he really wanted to leave a good impression, he would have tried harder," Sirius sniffed. The rest of the teens started laughing.

"Should we make it an early night since we have school tomorrow?" Lily asked.

"Doesn't matter what day of the week it is…it's always a late night in the boys' dorm," Peter said with a grin.

"Ok, well I'm going to bed. Goodnight boys," Lily said as she pulled away from James' embrace. "See you in the morning."

"Night Lily," Peter and Remus called.

Once she was out of ear shot, Sirius asked, "How come you two never kiss?"

"What do you mean?"

"What do you mean, _what do you mean_? It's as simple as my question. You two hug and…lie on the couch together, but you're never…"

"Intimate," Remus finished off.

"It's different with Lily and I. We really didn't know each other when this started and so we kind of had to start at the beginning, which is friends," James said.

"So where are you now?" Peter asked.

"I…I don't really…know…"

* * *

Ok, so the editing process didn't go as quickly as planned…but that's alright! Wish I could tell you when the next chapter will be up, but I can't…because it's not written. All I can say is…Potions Class.

YEAH!

REVIEW NOW!


	4. Chapter 4: Week Two: Potions

Hey Guys! Alright, been a light year and then some, but I'm finally here with chapter 4! YEAH! Does happy dance! You should be happy to know that this is the longest chapter in 52 Days history coming in with 6,174 words! Um…I won't keep you all, so look at the bottom for all the good stuff. I have some plans in store that you don't want to miss! Enjoy! P.S: We've got some stronger language this chapter...sorry. IT'S NOT MY FAULT THOUGH!

Disclamer: The day that I become famous is the day that I will own Harry Potter…Oh wait, that day is too come soon. Well…it works for now…

* * *

Chapter 4:

Week Two: Potions

Lily woke up earlier than normal, Monday. She grabbed her outfit and shower supplies, and headed towards the bathroom. She was surprised to find two of her dorm mates already there. Rochelle Bennett and Karman Powell were talking aimlessly.

Lily didn't really have a best girl friend in the school. She talked to a lot of the girls in her year, but the closest she had to best friends would be Karen and Ronnie. Every time she hung out with them, though, she felt like the third wheel. But, if there were two girls that she was farthest from in personality, it would be Rochelle and Karman.

Lily stepped in a stall two down from the others girls.

"Lily, is that you?" Rochelle called. Her icy, soft voice filled the bathroom.

"Yeah. Morning, Rochelle, Karman."

"You're up early," Karman said.

"Yeah, well, I figured that if I wanted to look as good as you two, I should start waking up at the same time you do. I mean, it must take _hours _to look half as decent as you…but, no pain, no beauty, eh?" Lily smirked.

There was a beat before, "Oh, Evans. You're _so _funny! Isn't she _so funny, _Rochelle?"

Lily rolled her eyes and finished her shower quickly. She changed into her school uniform, and then brushed out her hair. Unfortunately, Rochelle and Karman were not far behind her. They entered the front half of the bathroom, wearing their bra and underwear.

"…I mean, he's amazing and comes from a wonderful family, purebred _and _my parents love him," Rochelle elaborately explained. "Lily, did you see my new _baby_?"

"Um, I didn't know you had a baby, although that doesn't surprise me," Lily commented.

Rochelle smirked at her then threw her hand out. Lily flinched, thinking that Rochelle was going to slap her, but then she realized that Rochelle was showing Lily her hand. There, sitting on her ring finger was a gorgeous **diamond ring**. It sparkled under the bathroom light as she waved her hand around.

"Nicky and I are getting married. He purposed over the weekend," she explained.

"How exciting," Lily drawled.

"I know. I was so sure that you and Keith were going to get married. But, having _him_ as a father…"

"Um…excuse me?"

"Well, you wouldn't want the baby to be without a father, but I guess Keith just wasn't the right guy, ya know? Potter should be able to do better," Rochelle said with a gleam in her eyes.

"_Excuse me_? I am _not _having a baby," Lily snapped. Her face was beet red and her **anger** was beginning to rise.

"Well, I was noticing a little bit of a stomach on you…I guess you're just gaining weight. Of course, that's not very attractive on females. James is taking a chance with you. You must realized that if you want to satisfy his status quo, you're gonna have to lose some pounds, right? You're not the average type of girl he would take. Actually, it's like taking a step _back_ for him. Oh well, everyone needs a harlot once in a while."

Rochelle and Karman laughed and exited the bathroom, leaving Lily standing there in shock. She swallowed deeply, trying to keep the tears from even brimming in her eyes. Lily looked at her body in the mirror. She wasn't gaining weight, was she?

Karen and Ronnie walked in the bathroom.

"You okay, Lils?" Ronnie asked.

"The bitches just left the bathroom. Did you see that rock on Rochelle's finger?" Karen asked disgustedly.

"Yeah-"

"She's such a slut. I'm sure they'll have a baby and then never marry. I hate her," Karen said with a roll of her eyes.

"I'm gonna…go," Lily said as she gathered her things and left the room.

Lily didn't touch any of her breakfast. She just slowly sipped her orange juice.

"Lily, you gonna eat that?" James asked her, pointing to her untouched eggs and bacon.

"You can have it."

Remus looked at her through curious eyes.

qpqpqpqpqp

"In case you haven't caught on, for the next month, probably until the week before break, your schedules are going to be different. Your core teachers, including myself, are trying something new, which I'm sure you'll all enjoy," Professor Slughorn stated while clasping his hands together. He started "the teacher walk," up and down the isles.

"The project is called, "Real Life." Like the title suggests, you will have to deal with real life situations throughout the month with your teachers. We're going to take all the years worth of knowledge and see if you can apply it to _your_life." Slughorn passed by Lily's desk and winked at her with a grin.

"Mine, obviously has to deal with potions. This is more of a medical thing. Everyone will be assigned a partner. Each group will receive a card with a medical scenario on it. You'll have the week to solve your case. Each card has a medical problem on it that requires an antidote. You must figure out the problem with your patient first and conjure the counter-antidote. You don't have to show up for _this _class everyday if you don't need to, although I should mention that I have all the necessary ingredients. Plan your time wisely, especially because I might take off points for not being able to cure your patient in time with their accident."

Slughorn clapped his hands together again. "Alright, partners: Longbottom and Smith, Evans and Lupin-"

"Why are you putting the two smartest people in our year together?! That's not fair!" Sirius cried.

Slughorn chuckled. "While they are smart, they are not the best, Mr. Black. I saved the best for you. Mr. Black, you will be with Mr. Snape."

"Aw, hell no!" Sirius cried.

"I'd rather work with the mud- Evans, anyway," Snape drawled.

"Yes, well I wanted to see how my best mind and most creative mind worked together," Slughorn replied with a smile. "Who else do we have, oh, yes. Potter and Fox, Vance and Fone…"

James' face paled as he slowly looked over at the menacing face of Keith Fox.

"At least I get a good partner like you, Remus," Lily said as Professor Slughorn passed out the patient cards. "Thank you," she said as she grabbed the card. "Alright, it says, 'you're patient has been attacked by something, but it's not clear as to what. The victim is deathly pale with scratches and blood all over their body. The victim has been unconscious for two hours. Their canine teeth are an abnormal length and their eyes are a dilated **yellow**. You have not taken a blood sample yet, but the blood oozing from the scrapes is dark red.'" Lily looked up at Remus, the color draining from his face. "You okay?"

"I know what they were bitten by," he quietly said.

Lily waited for him to say something. "…well…"

"A werewolf."

"Really? How did you know that? I guess it makes sense…but still…"

"I know a lot about werewolves," he murmured.

Lily could tell that he didn't want to talk about it, so she let it drop.

"Um…well do you know how to…what potion we need?" she stuttered.

Remus just shook his head.

"Okay, why don't we go to the library, yeah?" Lily said.

Remus nodded his head silently again.

Lily and Remus worked in silence while in the library. Lily didn't ask him anything, and Remus kept to himself somewhere in the back. She made sure to keep away from Remus and focus on a potion that might help werewolves-to-be. About an hour in, Lily found Remus sitting in the isle reading a book having to deal with **short stories**about muggle fairy tales.

"Hey Remus, you okay?" she asked as she sat down next to him.

He didn't say anything.

"Is there something personal going on with this subject that's made you like this? I'm really worried about you. I didn't want to ask about it, but…you're my friend and I care about you. I don't want to see you so upset," Lily said, trying to look him in the eye.

"My hands are hairy," Remus finally said.

Lily's eyebrow shot up. "What did you say?"

Remus showed her his hands. "They are disgusting." He looked down ashamed.

Lily grabbed his one hand in between her left and right. "I think your hands are nice and warm…and not creepy or disgusting in any way," she said as she rubbed them. Lily knew Remus was trying to divert her attention so they'd avoid the real topic of discussion. She decided that he would tell her when he was ready.

"Thank you."

"You want to know what I found?" she asked him. When Remus nodded she showed him the _Morslupus _potion, a potion that would help clean out the venom of the wolf bite and hopefully save or minimize the risk of becoming a werewolf.

qpqpqpqpqp

Sirius was in the library after dinner, looking for a book for his and Severus' potion. Severus was excellent at potions, and he had made it clear that if Sirius messed up a good grade…that it would be the end of Sirius Black.

As Sirius trailed his fingers down the book shelves he accidently ran into someone.

"HEY!"

"Ouch!" a girl's voice cried.

Sirius knew this was a moment to maybe catch a quick snog with this girl, and he wasn't even trying!

"Oh, I'm terrible so-" but Sirius stopped when he saw who it was. Sirius glared into the eyes of Sandy Reu, James' ex-girlfriend.

"What are you doing?" he spat.

"I didn't do anything, _Black_. _You_ ran into _me, _remember?"

"Yeah, well you shouldn't get in the way of a thinking man."

"Well, then, I wasn't in your way because you don't THINK!"

"Don't get in my way again, Reu, you bitch," Sirius said.

"Don't be calling me names, Black. Your…_friend,_ Potter, was a cheating jerk. He never liked me. I saw his eyes, he was always checking out other girls and I figured that he never paid attention to me. Guess I was right, because he didn't even catch that me and Keith had been together for 3 months," Sandy said. Because Sirius was so dumbfound, she pushed passed him and sauntered away.

Sirius knew that he should tell James, even though it didn't matter now. But it was something that he knew his best mate needed to know.

qpqpqpqpqp

Lily didn't eat dinner the night before, and by potions the next day she was hungry and cranky. The bell rang and Remus hadn't walked in yet. She decided to give him ten minutes, but after five she started to panic. 'What if he doesn't show up? Who's gonna help me? I _need him!'_ she kept thinking. She moodily started her potion, spilling droplets and ingredients everywhere.

Two rows behind and over to Lily's right was where Keith and James were stationed. While neither had said barely five words to the other, they seemed to have come to an understanding. Keith gathered and prepped all the ingredients and James sat by the cauldron while he aimlessly mixed the concoction. James wasn't too happy about his job, but seeing as he didn't even have to look at Keith, everything seemed to be one hundred times better than it could be.

Sirius was on watch by Severus. Without the aide of his friends, Sirius was not able to keep his cool, especially in a class that he was so bad at, so he just let Snape boss him around. Of course, Sirius hadn't gone down without a fight, but that was just it…he did go down.

_"Look, Snape, it's just gonna be you and me and if you _think_ for even a sec-"_

_"If you don't listen to every word I say, you won't live to see the next full moon. I've never gotten anything lower than an outstanding, and I don't want you to be the first to _Screw-Me-Over._You'll be my lab assistant; someone as thick as you should be able to handle that job. Do we have an agreement?" Snape asked, his eyes flashing._

_Sirius gulped and nodded his head._

So maybe there was less fighting going on than planned, but before long, potions would be over for the day and Sirius would be back in the comfort of his friends.

After a long hour of potions, Lily quickly left the room. She didn't even wait around for James. She needed to eat something, but she didn't know what or how to get it. Hurriedly, Lily went up to the dorm before her next class to grab a few sugar quills. She knew they weren't the best thing, but they were better than nothing.

Wednesday breakfast came, and Remus wasn't sitting with the guys like normal.

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"Where's Remus been?" Lily asked.

"Remus?" James, Sirius, and Peter all asked as they looked at each other.

"Um…his…cousin…" Sirius started.

"…is having a baby!" Peter cried.

"What?" Lily asked, her face scrunched up in confusion.

James glared at Peter. "Yeah…um…she's having a baby, and she wants Remus to be there."

"Why does he need to be there?"

"Um…because that's her favorite cousin, and she has no one else," Sirius said.

"She's an outcast," Peter said with a nod.

"So, Remus is visiting his pregnant…_cousin,_ because she's having a baby and she has no one else…not even the father, to help her?" Lily asked.

"Yeah. They…they don't know who the father is. That's why she's an outcast," Sirius explained.

"Is Remus gonna be here tomorrow?" she impatiently asked.

"Um…probably not."

"Does this pregnant girl know that Remus is my _potions_ partner and we're probably gonna _fail_ our project so he can deliver a baby that's not actually _his_?" she seethed.

"Lily, calm down. Why don't you finish your eggs," James said, reaching across to pat her hands.

She recoiled as if his hand was venomous.

"Are you _implying something_!? Hum? Maybe that I'm too FAT!" she cried. With a flourish, Lily got out of her seat and stormed out of the Great Hall.

"What the hell is her problem?" Sirius asked.

"I don't know. Should I go after her?" James questioned.

"And let her warm eggs go to waste?" Peter quipped.

"We'll talk later. I promise."

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Lily was in a very bad mood by the time potions came around. She was storming around and slamming measuring cups and knives everywhere.

"Lily, is something wrong?" Slughorn asked her.

"No, of _course_ not. My potions partner was gone _yesterday,_ he's gone _today, _and he's _gonna_ be gone _tomorrow!_ I have no one, basically," she said with fake enthusiasm.

"Well, if you want me to find someone to he-"

"I'll help her," Keith said, sticking his hand up in the air.

James looked over at him. _What the hell did he think he was doing?_

"Mr. Fox?"

"Yes, Professor. Potter and I are pretty much done with our potion, so I wouldn't mind spending the rest of class working with Lily," Keith said with a gentle smile.

"I…I could help her too," James said while trying to make his way over to Lily.

"One person is plenty. Come down here, Mr. Fox. Potter, make sure your potions doesn't ruin. I wouldn't want to fail you," Slughorn said as he started walking back towards his desk.

Keith winked at James and made his way over to Lily. He quietly said something to her and she nodded and smiled. Keith brought his hands to her face and started wiping away the tears that were barely present.

James' anger boiled. Who the _hell_ did he think he was?

James moodily watched the two while he aimlessly stirred the potion. He glared and pretended to stab Keith's eyes out. He made up fake conversations between the two of them with different voices.

"Oh, Keith. No one _understands _me," James said, mocking Lily with an extremely high voice.

"Not to worry Lily. Super Fox is here. Do you like my name? It sounds like shit but I still like it 'cause I am shit." James said, his voice deep and masculine.

"Oh, well I think it's very sexy," James said while Lily pulled a thread off of Keith's shirt.

"Good thing you got that, Lily. For a moment, I was almost uglier than before!"

James got up and decided to see exactly what was going on with Lily and Keith.

"Hey, _baby_," James said as he approached the two.

"James," Lily said, her left eyebrow raised. "What's up?"

"Oh, I just came to visit my _girlfriend_, ya know, see if _she, _my _girlfriend,_ needed any help because, well…jeez…cuz I'm her _boyfriend,_ I guess," James spat.

"Well, that's very nice of you, but you don't need to be talking like that, _babe_," she said, catching on to his game.

"Is there anything you need?" James asked, hoping his voice didn't sound too desperate.

"No, Potter. Why aren't you watching _our_ potion?" Keith asked, glaring at James.

"Actually, could you go get these ingredients, please?" Lily asked him, handing James some parchment with several ingredients on it.

"No problem, Lily. That's what _boyfriends_ do."

James strode off with a very smug grin on his face. He looked around in Slughorn's ingredient cabinet, but it was hard to locate certain items in the dark. He looked at the back wall, trying to decide if Lily wanted fresh frog legs or frozen ones when he was spun around and slammed against the wall. Several potions toppled off the shelves, smashing around James, but that was the least of his concern. There was a tight grip on his throat that was more troublesome.

"What the _hell _is your problem, Potter," Keith snapped.

"What is _my_ problem? You're the one who's….who's all up on my girlfriend!" James cried, shoving Keith's hand away from him.

"She doesn't even fucking like you. She's dating you out of _pity_. You may say that you're "dating," but you act more like friends. Although, I don't even know what kind of friend she sees in you. As soon as your little…_game_…ends, she'll be back with me, no doubt. She still likes me, and you're just one of those guys who she'll never even glance at once she dumps you. You're a piece of trash, Potter, and it's time Lily threw you out." With his final statement, Keith grabbed the supplies James was holding, spun on his heel and left. "Clean up your mess, Potter," he said on his way out.

James glared at the spot where Keith had just been in. James muttered "_reparo," _and all the** broken glass** flew back to the shelves in one piece. He stormed out and went back to his desk. Sirius gave him a confused look and James shrugged it off moodily. He watched from the back as Keith said something else to Lily and her eyes went wide while she smiled. Then Keith reached out and started tickling her. She slapped at his hands playfully while her laughter rang through James' ears. By the time the bell rang, James was in a very sour mood, much like his girlfriend at the beginning of the day.

"Prongs! Wait up!"

"Go away Padfoot."

"No, come on. Talk to me. What's going on with you and Lily and Ke-"

"_Don't_…say his name." James snapped.

"What's going on? What happened in the supply closet? I heard something crash," Sirius asked, concern on his face.

"Prongs, you left your book in class. Keith and Lily have it," Peter said as he approached his friends.

"Why didn't _you_ grab it?" he asked.

"Um…that's a good question actually…" Peter answered with a cough.

"James! James, wait up," Lily said as she and Keith walked faster to catch up with them. As childish as it was, James sped up, hoping to avoid his enemy and dumb girlfriend.

"Potter, don't be rude," Keith said as he grabbed James' shoulder. "You left _this_," Keith said as he slammed James' book into his chest, "in class. Thought I'd be a friend and grab it for you."

"Thanks, _friend_," James said through clenched teeth.

"Come on, Lily. I'll walk you down to COMC," Keith said while winking at James.

"Thanks. See you at dinner, James," Lily said with smile.

When then two were out of hearing distance, Peter asked, "Are we going to dinner tonight?"

"Let's skip, maybe bring some food to Remus," James suggested. "We'll talk then. For now, I'm going to nap," James decided as he turned around and walked towards the Gryffindor tower.

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"So, why are you all tense, James? I could sense it as soon as you entered," Remus asked as he continued to color in his picture with pencil. During the day, Remus got bored while sitting all alone in the Shrieking Shack, so he often brought paper and pencils with him to keep busy with.

"Keith is an ass," James snarled.

"What happened?"

"Something bad happened between James and Keith today, something dealing with Lily," Peter replied.

"Thank you, Captain Obvious. The questions is, what?" Sirius said.

"How 'bout you all don't talk like I'm not here, and I'll tell you what happened.

James quickly relayed the story about of Remus not being in potions, Keith volunteering to work with Lily and Keith slamming James against the wall with his threat.

"Shit," Sirius commented.

"Well, James, not to disagree, but you two _did_ start dating because you were "all alone."

"REMUS!"

"I know, but it's true, and…well look at Keith's side. You're getting upset because Keith is _talking_ to Lily. Think of how he feels seeing his girlfriend with another boy-"

"He dumped her! Remus, why aren't you on my side?" James asked.

"I know, I'm just saying. Look, I'm _not_ saying that you and Lily aren't good for each other, or that you should break up or anything. All I'm saying is…maybe Lily doesn't realize what's happening, and _that's_ why she's "letting" it happen. Have you told her how you feel?" Remus asked him.

"Feelings are for girls and wusses," James murmured.

"Yeah, well, girls like sentimental guys. Tell her how you feel, James. I'm sure it will make things better than they are now."

The guys talked for a little longer until beams from the moon started to shine into the shack and Remus started his painful transformation.

"I think we'll go to the Forbidden Forest tonight," James said before he changed into his animagus form.

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Around 5 A.M., the sun started to come up and the four Marauders went back to the Shrieking Shack. James, Sirius and Peter waited until Remus painfully transformed back into a human. Remus fainted like he normally did after transformations and the guys unwillingly left him. The three boys trudged up the stairs to the Gryffindor Tower and silently entered the common room. Peter and Sirius quickly went up stairs, but red hair on the couch closest to the fireplace caught James' eye. He cautiously walked in that direction, and saw that Lily was fast asleep on her homework, which was spread out around her on the coffee table and the floor.

"Lils. Lily, wake up," James said gently as he nudged her. She slowly opened her eyes and sat up. She looked down at her homework and sighed.

"Damn it, the ink smeared."

James chuckled. "I can fix that," he said as he waved his hand over her paper. The ink magically moved back into place.

"Is it on my face?" she asked sleepily.

"Yeah…a little bit." James couldn't help but smile.

Lily rubbed at her cheek and then gave up, knowing that whatever she did wouldn't work.

"What are you doing down here still?" James asked her as he helped her clean up her papers. He decided to put what happened earlier today behind him.

"I was doing homework, and must have fallen asleep, obviously," Lily said, rolling her eyes playfully. "Actually…what are _you_ doing?"

"Me? Um…I came back…from the library," James lied.

"Just now?"

"Um…well…no. A little while ago…but then I went to go take a bath in the prefects bathroom," James said.

"You're not a prefect, though."

"Yeah. I know where it is and the password…because I'm _magical_," he said, waving his hands around his head.

Lily laughed. "Thanks," she said as she grabbed her parchment from his extended hand.

"Alright, I'll see you tomorrow…well…actually, in a couple of hours," Lily said as she climbed the stairs to the girls dorm.

"Night, Lils."

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Most of the class was done with their potions by Thursday, so many students didn't show up to class. Lily was among the few who were still working on their potions. Not only was she working alone, but her potion needed to be stirred for two days for 2 hours at night, which is what she spent her time out of class doing. Keith was there doing some make-up work for Slughorn, so it gave her someone for her to talk to.

"Alright, how does this sound. ' Jobberknoll feathers are used mainly in Memory potions.'"  
"Is that it?" Lily asked.

"Yeah, basically."

Lily rolled her eyes. "Okay, that's an alright beginning, but you need about 12 more inches of parchment to make an acceptable paper," Lily said with a laugh. Keith chuckled too.

"I know, but that was the start. Jobberknoll is hard to write about."

"Oh, you're such a baby, stop complaining," she said as she smacked his arm.

Lily stomach made an unusual lurch and her body started to heat up.

"It's really hot in here," she commented.

"It's because I'm here," Keith said, his back turned to her.

"Ha ha, very funny, Fox," Lily murmured.

Lily got up and walked over to the supply table sitting by the northern wall. She grabbed some bird eyes and salamander tails, and slowly walked back to her desk. As she was moving, she tripped over a desk and chair in her path.

"Lily?" Keith called.

"I'm fine. Keep writing." She sat down at her desk, put her supplies down and wiped the sweat off her forehead. She swallowed about seven times, but couldn't seem to get her throat more moist. She closed her eyes for a brief period and then unscrewed the lid to a bottle that she didn't even remember grabbing. The fumes rushed out and surrounded her, making her vision look like a dream. Then the room started to spin and Lily collapsed.

"Lily. Lily, come on. Wake up. Lily."

Lily opened her eyes, but it took a while for them to focus. When she was finally able to see properly, she looked up into the worried eyes of Keith.

"There you are. Hey," he said while running his hand down the side of her face.

"What happened?" she blearily asked.

"You fainted or something. I don't know. I just heard you hit the ground. You okay? What's going on?"

"I'm…I'm fine. I don't know. I think that I've just..."

"You've been looking really pale all week," Keith said.

"I think I just need some rest. I'll see you later Keith," Lily said as she packed all her things in her bag and left in a hurry. She didn't want Keith questioning her, or any teacher for that matter. She slowly walked up to Gryffindor Tower, everything around her moving in slow motion. She stumbled around and moved ungracefully. She kept her hands on the wall for support. The bag on her right shoulder felt like an elephant and her child. The pain, heat and dizziness were getting to be too much. When she entered the common room, she saw James, Sirius, Remus and Peter sitting by the fire. She blinked rapidly, trying to clear her vision as she blankly stood there. She saw James' smiling face change instantly into a frown. He leapt up and hurried over to her. Of course to Lily, this action took him forever. He walked to her side, his three friends following suite. James asked her questions but she couldn't make sense of what he was saying. The colors in the room started to swirl as the spinning of the room accelerated.

"I think she needs help."

"…bring her to the hospital wing!"

"…maybe she needs to puke."

"Damn it! Catch her!"

The second time Lily woke up, she was in a comfortable bed instead of on the hard ground.

"Oh, Merlin, Lily, you're awake," James said as he awkwardly hugged her.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I'm just…tired…" Lily said, her head still spinning.

"Mr. Potter please back away from my patient or I'm going to kick you out," Madam Pomfery said as she bustled towards Lily's bed. "Miss Evans, I'm going to ask you some questions, and you answer them if you can. How had you been feeling this week?"

"Um…tired, I guess. My stomach hurts, and so does my head."

"Alright, have you changed any normal procedures?"  
_Besides eating,_ Lily thought. "Not that I can think of."

"What have you been eating?"

"Not a lot," Lily honestly said.

"Well, I think that's your problem right there. You're probably malnourished. Let me see if I can get you some food from the kitchens, okay?"

"I can get her some food," James offered.

"Thank you, Mr. Potter but, I'll have the house elves bring her something.

"I'll see that it's done," James said, looking at her earnestly.

"Alright, alright. Miss Evans, I want you to come back in two days for me to see how you are doing."

James led Lily down towards the kitchens, but never telling her where they were going.

"James?"

"We're almost there, I promise," James said with a small smile.

They approached a painting with a fruit bowl on it. James reached up and tickled a green pear and suddenly a door knob appeared.

"What's this?" Lily asked, surprised.

"You'll see," James said, not giving anything away. He opened the door for her and proceeded into the kitchen. What seemed like a thousand house elves appeared before them, asking the couple what they wanted to eat.

"Oh, my. I'll just have some fruit," Lily said politely.

"What? I promised Madam Pomfery a good meal, so you're getting one. Why don't you get us some steak and kidney pies with, I don't know, vegetables or something, whatever you have," James said as the elves hurried around, getting together James' and Lily's order.

"This place is amazing, James. How did you know about it?" Lily asked as her eyes took in everything around her.

_Beat that, Keith! _"Um… I've been exploring the castle ever since I got here, ran into the portrait one night, and now I'm a regular," he explained with a shrug.

The two sat down on stools that were seated by a counter. The elves quickly brought out the pies and Lily and James quietly ate their meals.

"You alright?" James asked, trying to break the silence.

"Yeah, I'm fine now. I was just…tired and hungry, or something," Lily explained, not looking James in the face.

"If something is bothering you, I'll listen. You can tell me," he said, even though on the inside he was smacking himself for not doing exactly what he asked her, about himself.

"I'm fine, really. Just…can't wait until Remus gets back."

"Oh, yeah. Well, he should be here tomorrow. Tonight at dinner if we're lucky," James said while scooping some of his food onto his fork.

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Remus was back the next day, and Lily was grateful he was there to help her add the final touches to the potion. Lily's body was still coping with the lack of food, and then 180 turn to eating right again, so she was a little clammy and shaky, but well enough function for a day. Remus, knowing all about the James and Keith conflict and hearing about Lily's lack of eating, along with his own suspicion, took it upon himself to fix his friends' problems.

"So, Lily," Remus asked as he added in the hazel leaves, "what's going on with you and Keith?"

"What do you mean, 'what's going on?' Nothing is. Well, nothing that I'm aware of," she said, looking him in the eye.

"But you two are talking?"

"Yeah, so?"

"What do you guys talk about?"  
"What does it matter to you?" Lily snapped.

"It doesn't. But to others, it does," Remus said.

"Like who? James? Did he ask you to come and yell at me?" she asked him, her temper rising.

"No, this is all my doing. I'm asking because James is very…concerned about you. He's afraid that Keith will do something…unnecessary."

"Like what? Talk to me? Hug me? Kiss me? Is that just it? I'm not aloud to have contact with the outside world now because I'm James Potter's girlfriend?" Lily said, raising her voice.

"No, not at all. Keith and James had a…little conversation earlier this week, and James might now be afraid that you might…leave him," Remus explained, but as soon as those words left his mouth, he knew they were the wrong words to say.

"Oh, James can't handle being "girlfriendless," that's it, isn't it?!"

"Okay, look, James is a guy, and like any guy, he gets very jealous. You and Keith have been hanging out lately and it's making James very paranoid. I think you should just talk to him and inform him about what's going on. He's confused and a little slow," Remus explained with a chuckle.

"Is it really bothering him?" Lily sincerely asked.

"Yeah…it is, and I think you have something you need to tell James," Remus said, looking at her knowingly.

"I don't know what you're talking about," she scoffed.

"Why haven't you been eating all week?" Remus asked her.

"I have been…"

"No, you haven't. Maybe James hasn't noticed it, but I have."

"Well maybe you should be my boyfriend then," Lily snapped.

"Lily-"

"Do you think I'm fat?" she interjected, worry evident in her tone.

"What?"

"You heard me."

"Where did you get that idea from?"  
"Rochelle and Karman."

Remus rolled his eyes. "Should you ever believe anything they say?"

"No…but I let it get to me…it was so dumb…"

"You and James need to talk right, now," Remus said. "I'll finish up the potion and you go find James. This is something you both need to do."

Lily went in search for James. Once she found him she brought him out to the lake so they could talk.

"James-" she started.

"Lily, I'm sorry about how I've acted this past week."

"James-"

"No, let me finish." James said, holding up a hand to stop her. "Look, I know that I acted like a jerk, but it was for a good reason. Well, at least in my head it was for a good reason."

The November breeze whirled around them and Lily hugged her cloak tighter to her body.

"I saw you and Keith working together, and you looked like you were enjoying yourself; having a good time. All week you'd been miserable, and the only person who could make you smile was Keith, and that hurt me. I know that I didn't really try to do anything to make you feel better, I did notice, honestly, I just though it was you…being a girl…and it'd go away. And then Keith and I…we got into an argument Wednesday, and he…said some things that made me upset. I was just overreacting and I'm really sorry about it." James concluded. He was breathing heavily, looking Lily in the eye.

"Well, part of the reason_ I _was in such a bad mood this week was because I wasn't eating very much. I also had something said to me and I took it the wrong way, and didn't really think through what was being said, and I stopped eating. That's why I kept fainting yesterday."

"What happened?" James asked, concern etched on his face.

"Someone called me fat, and I believed her. So I thought, well, you wouldn't want to date a fat girl, especially since I'm not the typical type of girl you'd date-"

"Don't even say that." James said. "We might have started this because of different circumstances, but I really…enjoy your company and I'd treat you like any other girl I'd date, Lily. Shit, maybe even better. You are different than the type of girls I'd date, but I'm sick and tired of being known as _that_ kind of guy. The kind that moves from girl to girl with no feelings for anyone, including himself. You're different, but I think I like it better this way." James smiled down on her and pulled her into a hug. "You don't have to change for anyone but yourself," he murmured in her ear. James kissed the top of her head, and they turned around and slowly walked back up to the castle, their arms around each other.

"Fuck you, Potter," a voice said from behind the bushes once Lily and James were out of ear shot. The person turned on their heel with a flourish, their robes billowing in suite and the figure stalked off towards Hogsmeade, trying to keep their emotions in check.

* * *

Dun, dun, dun! AHHHHH!

Okay, done with the freak out. A note on the transformation. The transformation along with the boys' late night prowles leave Remus very tired. So, after his transformation back into a human, he always faints, just lies there helplessly. The guys don't want to leave him because, well obviously, that's their friend and they wan to help him. _But,_obviously they cant' stay because if Madame Promfrey finds them…so that's why they unwillingly leave him…cough, cough.

I decided that I need to be a more fun person on here…cuz I can! So, here's the scoop. I've updated my profile! If you look at it though, you'll notice that the 20 Things About Me, is missing. That's because the spot will now be filled with things from you guys! In your next review, you can ask a question about me, any question at all, and I'll pick 5 review's questions' to answer in that spot instead. That's the first thing you need to leave in your review, of course along with your opinions of the chapter. The second is that, maybe you noticed, maybe not, but in my stories, I like to quote movies, books, and songs. This chapter, a character, (and I'll make it easy on you, James) said something to a female character, that a male in _another book_ says to a girl he loves. If you can find this quote, I'll give you…well you'll just have to wait and see what I give you! 8)

Also! I've updated my poll question! PLEASE VOTE! You're voting on, who was the mysterious person at the end of the chapter. So remember, VOTE, REVIEW, ENJOY LIFE, and see you next chapter. :D


	5. Chapter 5: Week Three: Transfiguration

Hey gang! I know that _this_ update has been...well, longer than a light year and then some, but shorter than infinity; so use whatever definition you want, but that's how long I guess. Anyway, welcome back! I'm glad that I'm back, at least. So, the writing is a little...weird in this becuase I wrote this June but I've just spent the last...eh....three months I think, in a creative writing class, so obviously I'm a much better writer, but I didn't want to completely change what I had originally wrote, so that why certain people may not have consistancy in their language. So, I'll stop babbling and actually let this update continue. Oh, also, longest chapter in 52 Days history! Yeah! Acording to it's 7, 006 words!!! Damn! Haha! Hope you all enjoy!

Disclamer: (Should do this once in a while, eh?) If you can't figure out what's mine and what's not, they you're obviously not a _real _Harry Potter fan. But you can still read this fic! :D

* * *

Chapter 5:

Week Three: Transfiguration

For the real life project, all the core classes had been moved to the morning. Transfiguration, however, was the exception. After lunch, on Monday, the Marauders and Lily walked slowly to Professor McGonagall's class. The bell rang and everyone was in their seats, but McGonagall was no where to be found. The room went up in murmurs as everyone asked their neighbor the question of where was their professor.

"I'm sure you're all looking forward to the real life project for this class because it means that you get out of class for a week. Am I right?" she coldly asked. No one responded even though they were all thinking 'yes' in their heads. "Unfortunately for you, we will not be taking a break from the curriculum this week, so you are still expected to show up for class the rest of this week."

This caused the class to groan in disappointment.

"Settle down. The simplicity of your test, if you will, is simply to use as many transfiguration spells as you can. The more you use, the more points that get added to your house points."

The class started muttering happily amongst themselves.

"The spell point will depend on the year that you learned it. If it's a first year spell, then you will get one point, second year, two, so on and so forth. A spell used that we've never learned will earn your 30 points."

More classroom excitement occurred.

"Professor, are we aloud to look up spells we don't know?" Lily's roommate Ronnie asked.

"Yes, you may. You only have until Saturday to collect these points, though. Some of you might find this task easy while others will prove that it's very difficult. Now, everyone pull out their textbooks and flip to page 313," McGonagall said as she turned towards the board and started writing on it.

There was still a slight mummer among the students and McGonagall must have been feeling really well today because she didn't say anything about it.

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"This project is awesome!" Lily beamed. She took a big bite out of her chocolate **pudding** in between her two sentences. "I mean, not to be cocky or anything but I know a lot of spells that most people don't know. I know that I can win this challenge."

The Marauders and Lily sat together in the Great Hall, each lunch and talking about their new freedom.

"You can win whatever you set your mind to, babe," James said as he put his arm around her waist.

"I know. Thanks for the support. You guys have come up with your own spells as well, haven't you?" she asked the four boys. Sirius let loose a knowing smirk.

"A few. But that doesn't matter now. The thing is, we really haven't done anything Marauder-like this year and this is our last year in school. I mean, how pathetic. So, the guys and I have come up with this plan. We are going on the **Anti-magic movement**," Sirius said with a smile.

"The Anti-magic movement, eh? What's this _brilliant_ plan deal with?" Lily asked.

"You see, the whole school, or at least the 7th years are expecting some wicked things to happen over the next four days. That's four days of_ free _magic, basically. But what if the Marauders chose a time like this to not perform any spells? What if we just sat around quietly, acting as if we were waiting for the _right moment to strike? _The whole school will be on their toes," James said with a wide smile.

"Everyone will think we're pulling tricks left and right, but when they look at our point jar, they'll see that it's empty. It's the best prank we've ever come up with," Peter said. He sounded accomplished.

Lily raised her eyebrows, confused. "I still don't get why it's so great."

"It's hard to explain. Just think of a school, that is just waiting for danger at any moment. For the rest of the week, everyone will be in frenzy, waiting for us to pull a trick on them. It's the fear that we're looking for. I mean, we'll be Gods for the rest of the week. Everyone will worship the ground we walk on," Remus said with a shrug.

"I think it's amazing!" Sirius said.

"I don't really get what's so satisfying, but I'll go with it," Lily said as she took a sip from her cup.

"To the greatest prankster of Hogwarts!" Sirius said as he raised his glass and clinked with his three friends. He tilted his glass back ready to chug, and then started choking.

"What the hell!" he cried as he spit up brown stuff. "I have **a goblet of sand**," Sirius said, his face puzzled.

Lily started chuckling. "Looks like you've found the Holy Grail," she said with a laugh.

"The Holy Grail was filled with sand?"

Lily just laughed again. "You're plan is…okay I guess, but you don't have magic to _rebel_ with. I think life is gonna suck for you four," Lily pointed out.

"It will only suck if you don't play fair," James said while looking her straight in the eye.

"I can be just as naughty as I can be nice," she said with a sly smile.

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Tuesday mornings were empty for the majority of the 7th year Gryffindor so they usually spent them in the common room playing cards. Lily and Remus introduced the group to a whole bunch of different muggle card games that the rest of the group actually enjoyed. Today, the were playing I Doubt It, a favorite among the teens.

"Four 10's" Sirius cried as he put his cards down.

"Bullshit," James said, looking at Sirius with disbelief.

"James," Lily scolded.

"What, Prongs? You don't believe me? Do I ever lie?" Sirius asked as he flashed James his heart melting smile.

"Yeah, ya do, Padfoot. A lot actually. I don't think you can go a day without lying."

Sirius' face fell at that comment. "Oh really? That hurts mate, right here in the center of my heart. Well, if you really want all those cards, call the shot again, but…" Sirius trailed off.

"Sirius, it's practically impossible for you to have all four 10's."

"Yeah, well you can't ask around the table because that's table talk so, ha!" Sirius cried triumphantly.

"Ok, dummy, I have a ten. So you can't have four," James shot.

"I also have a ten," Karen said, showing him her 10 of diamonds.

"Alright, alright. **Don't get shirty with me, young man**," Sirius mocked with a smile.

James just laughed. Just then, an owl hit the window.

"Hey, that's Fenton," Sirius said as he stood up to open the window. Fenton swooped in, made a large circle around the room, and dropped the letter where Sirius was recently sitting and then flew back out of the window.

"Bet it's a letter from my parents," Sirius said as he walked over to his chair and opened his letter. "Of course, Dear Sirius, this Christmas, your mother and I are going on vacation. We advise you not to come home for the holidays; not that you normally do. Inside we have given you your Christmas present. We will see you…when the time comes. Your Mother and Father." Sirius tossed the letter in the fire. "Like I would _ever _consider going home, for anything," he muttered and sat back down in his chair. "Shall we continue?"

The group finished the first game and Ronnie dealt out again to start a new game about an hour later.

"Wouldn't it be cool if we had a **bell tower**?" Peter asked.

"Where did that come from?" Remus asked.

"I don't know. I was just thinking about it. I mean, think of monuments like Big Ben and stuff. It would be cool if Hogwarts had a huge monument as well."

"I guess it would be a nice addition to the school," Lily said as she looked at her cards.

"Where the hell would be put a bell tower?" Sirius asked. "AH!" he cried as his chair vanished right from beneath him and he fell.

"If your ass wasn't so big, we'd have room for a bell tower," Ronnie said with a smirk.

"Ha, ha very funny."

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When it was finally time to go to Transfiguration, the group left the comfort of the common room and went to class. On the way, they found all sorts of 7th year students performing transfiguration spells, trying to boost up their point value. Sirius spotted a poor guy running down the hallway being chased by flying birds while his girlfriend chased after him screaming and throwing more hexes at him. A group of Hufflepuff girls were moving fakes pieces of wizard's gold around the floor for foolish first years to follow.

"Ahh, to be young and in love," Sirius commented as they walked.

"Not that you know what that feels like," Ronnie pointed out.

"I'm young and I've…lived…some. Maybe I haven't found love yet, but one day I will! You wait Miss Finch. I bet you won't even find love by the age of 25!" Sirius shot triumphantly.

"Yeah, Black. Well, I bet that you won't find love by the age of 20," she said with a smirk.

"Ouch, that's low, Finch. You've really hurt my heart. It's bleeding from pain," he said as he held his hands over his heart on his chest.

Something seemed to be moving from inside Sirius' pocket.

'What's that moving?" Peter asked while pointing.

"What the-" Sirius pulled out a bleeding heart from his pocket. "AHH! Ew!" he cried as he threw the heart down.

"Sirius, don't damage your heart even more," Lily said with a sly smile.

"What the hell?" he grasped his chest, looking for his heart inside, not that he could see it.

"Padfoot, it's just a spell. Calm down," Remus said while rolling his eyes.

"Ha, ha. You're all funny. Pick on the best looking guy in group. I see how it is," he muttered.

The 7th years rounded a corner as they all laughed at the crazy things that everyone was doing to gain points to their cups. When the teens entered the room, many people looked in surprise at the Marauders. As they had predicted, James, Remus, Sirius and Peter found their cups empty. Not a single drop of sand had filed into their glasses.

"Wouldn't this be the best time to pull your greatest prank, Marauders?" Barry Fone of Hufflepuff asked.

"It is the best time, we're just waiting for the right moment," James said with a wink.

Barry looked at Lily with a puzzled face.

"Don't ask me. I don't get it either," she said with a wave of her hands. She followed James up to their shared seat and waited for Professor McGonagall to start the class.

They were learning about changing beetles into roses when a knock came from the door.

"Come in," McGonagall called.

A Ravenclaw fifth year came in. "The Headmaster wishes to speak to Miss Evans," he said.

"Thank you, Roger. Miss Evans?" McGonagall said as she looked as Lily. She gave her professor a confused face. What did Dumbledore want with her?

"Should I bring my things?" she asked.

"Yes," Roger said.

"Alright. See you later, James," she said to him quietly. She quickly slipped out of her desk and walked out of the classroom. Roger followed her as she walked towards the Headmaster's office.

"I know the way, ya know," she said to him with a smile.

"Yeah, I know. I just thought I'd walk with you," he said with a smile back.

"Um…alright then."

The two walked in a peaceful silence. When they reached the front door, Roger gave her the password and followed her up the stairs.

"Have you ever been in his office?" Lily asked Roger with curious eyes.

"No," he confessed. Lily laughed. When she reached the top door, she knocked once and the door opened immediately.

"Mr. Thorson, thank you for walking Miss Evans to my room, but it is now time for you to leave. This is a private conversation."

Roger reluctantly left Lily alone with Dumbledore.

"Sit down. Lemmon drop?" he offered her.

"No, thank you. Professor, why do you wish to speak to me?" she asked as she sat down.

"I have some bad news for you, Miss Evans."

Lily shifted slightly in her seat.

"Your father contacted me about an hour ago. Your sister is getting married to Mr. Vernon Dursley this up coming summer. I'm assuming that you know who he is."

Lily nodded her head. Her brows furrowed together. "Sorry, Professor. But I don't see where there is bad news yet."

"Yes, well that was only a portion of the news your father gave me. He also informed me that your mother has passed away. She was killed in a hit-and-run accident. There was no way she could have survived the crash. Her car spun around at about 90 miles an hour and stopped when it smashed into an old oak tree. I'm very sorry about your loss."

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The four boys didn't see Lily for the rest of the day and James was getting worried.

"What do you think is taking her so long?" James asked for the hundredth time within the hour.

"I don't _know,_ Prongs. She'll be here eventually. Peter, stop cheating!" Sirius cried as he saw Peter move one of Sirius' knights off the board. Sirius and Peter were playing a game of chess while Remus was reading a book and James sat on the floor tearing his hair out.

"Try reading like Mooney over there," Peter suggested.

"What are you reading?" James asked, looking up at Remus.

"**Four Horsemen **by: Miranda Jones. It's a history book."

"Yawn," Sirius cried. "**Crikey! **Peter, what the hell are you doing!?" Sirius cried as Peter took another one of Sirius knights.

"I'm winning, that's what I'm doing," he said with a sly smile.

"Yeah, I can't sit around anymore. I'm going to find Lily," James said as he got up.

"Why don't you just look at the map," Remus asked without looking up from his reading.

"Yeah…funny story about the map. I can't find it," James said while he scratched his head.

"Great, it could now be in the greasy hands of Snape or something," Sirius said. "Shut up. I promise I'll find it before the year ends."  
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After spending the afternoon crying in Dumbledore's office, Lily finally calmed herself enough to leave in a composed manner. She slowly walked back to Gryffindor common room. Everything moving around her was moving in slow motion. She couldn't here anything, see anything, smell anything. Everything in her mind and life seemed to have stopped. She walked past the Great Hall and even though her stomach was crying for food, she just kept walking. Her feet moved hypnotically. She wasn't thinking, just walking. Everything in her body seemed numb and she was tired from crying all day. She finally made it to the common room and it was just her luck that the Fat Lady was not in her portrait. Lily thought this stupid seeing as it was barley 9 o'clock yet. So Lily slid down on the floor and sat there staring blankly ahead, the thoughts in her head swimming violently.

James didn't search every floor, every room and every hallway for Lily, but he did take the path to the Great Hall while swinging past the Transfiguration classroom. When he didn't see her in the Great Hall he went down to the kitchens. After having to fight off the house elves that lived to serve, he desperately walked back to the Gryffindor common room. On the way, he decided to take another detour to the library. In the library he ran into his ex-girlfriend, Sandy.

"Sandy," he coldly said.

"James, how are you?" she said a little friendlier than he had.

"Fine, thanks," James said, not returning the question. He went to move around her, but she blocked him again.

"Excuse me, but I'm looking for someone," he said as he tried to push past her.

"Will you…will you um…wow…this is harder than I thought," she mumbled. A blush started to creep up towards her neck. "Can you give this to Sirius, please?" she asked him as she handed him a note.

James raised his eyebrows. "Why? What's it say?" he asked as he snatched the letter away from her.

"Don't read it! Please, don't read it, just give it to him for me," she asked. She looked desperate.

"Yeah, whatever, he's a big boy. I'm sure he'll be able to handle whatever it says."

James would have read the letter anyway, but his mind was on Lily so he decided to just ask Sirius what it said at a latter date. After shoving the letter in his back pocket and checking the library twice, James reluctantly headed back to the Gryffindor tower for a second time.

As he approached the entrance he saw Lily sitting by the portrait.

"Lily!" he cried as he raced towards her. "Lily, where have you been all day!? I was looking every-" she looked up at him and what he saw broke his heart. "Lily? What's going on? What happened?" he asked her. He gingerly sat down next to her.

Lily didn't say anything. She just sniffed and looked away from him.

"Lily-" as she turned her head towards him he saw a fresh wave of tears fall off her face. She pursed her lips together to keep them from trembling.

"My…my mother…died," she said as the emotions over took her. She started sobbing and shaking and James pulled her into his embrace. He stroked her hair and made soothing circles up and down her back.

"It's okay. I'm here for you. I'll always be here for you. It's alright. Everything will turn out," he murmured in her ear.

They sat in silence for a while. James didn't ask her any questions and she didn't answer any.

"Drunk driver," Lily mumbled.

"What did you say?" he asked her.

"She…she was hit by a drunk driver. No chance of surviving," Lily said again. She pulled away from him and looked him in the eye. Her head just kept shaking back and forth.

"I…I was…so…_so_ horrible to her. Always yelling at her, screaming at her. Telling her mean things. I was always so convinced that she never loved me. I always told her that I hated her. Once I started attending Hogwarts, our relationship was no longer like it used to be when I was younger," Lily said as she sniffed her nose.

James just kept quiet and listened. Lily pulled away from him and positioned her body next to him. She groped around for his hand and he offered it to her. She grasped it and squeezed it tightly.

"I always felt like she was never proud of me. Every time I would do something, something…different…she'd say to me, 'why can't you be more behaved like Petunia? Why can't you be good like Petunia?'

She was proud, very proud about me making it into Hogwarts, but after, nothing. She never sent her gratitude towards me." Lily let another wave of tears fall down her face while she tightly grasped James hand. He wanted to touch her, hug her and make those tear stop falling, but he could also tell that she wanted to talk and he was willing to listen.

"One thing we used to do when I was younger, was go ice skating. My mum was _so _good at it. She used to take me out every weekend during the winter. Just her and me. She would help me with different skating tricks. I'll always remember that she owned these beautiful, expensive **silver skates**. The would sparkly in the light. They were amazing and I always hoped that when I was older she would give them to me. When Petunia turned 16 she decided that she wanted them and mom gave them to her. They sit in her closet and for all I know she sold them and they belong to someone who doesn't even _know,_ the…the _importance_ of those shoes." Lily started crying again. She let go of James' hand and put her face in her own.

"We'll find them, Lily. I'll find them for you, I promise," James said.

"Why was I so horrible to her? What…what was I thinking?" Lily asked.

"We say stupid things to our parents all the time. Just be happy about the good times you did have with your mom. I mean look at Sirius. He's never had a good relationship with his parents. His mother hates him and his father thinks that he's a disappointment. He was always being tortured by his cousins, but there was a time where he could at least have a conversation with his parents. Sirius rants about how much he hates his parents all the time and how he never did and never will love them, but I know that deep down inside he holds a place for them. He keeps the smallest, happiest memories with him all the time, in his heart. That's all you need to do. Don't think about the dumb things. Just keep the good ones with you."

"Yeah, well what makes me angry is that Petunia is getting married to her thick boyfriend, Vernon. I never liked that man. Actually, now that I think of it, I don't think mum did either," Lily said with a small chuckle.

"She getting married? Now?" James asked.

"Yeah I know. How considerate. She's so dumb, just always thinking about herself. One year for the summer we went to Vernon's parents place and we met all his relatives. It was pure torcher. His sister Marge is a beast, literally," Lily said with a laugh. James let out a smile.

"I bet I'm not going to even be invited," Lily said.

"Really?" James asked.

"With mum…gone…she doesn't need me to. She doesn't have to please anyone now but herself…well and maybe Vernon," she said with a smile. Then she stuck her tongue out in disgust.

James let out a burst of laughter.

"If you just met him…you would think the same thing," Lily said. "I shudder just thinking about him. He's big and hairy and gross. I even think he smells bad. I mean…ew," Lily said with a shudder.

"When did you say the wedding was?" James asked.

"In the summer. I didn't get a date yet, but whenever it is, I'm sure it's gonna be one hell of a wedding." Lily sighed and ruffled her hair.

"Lily, if you want, I'll go with you. Even though we won't be dating at the time, we can still go together as friends," James offered.

Lily looked up at him. "You would do that for me?" she asked.

"Well, yeah, of course I would. You've become one of my best friends. I'd do anything for my best friends," he said with a genuine smile.

"Thank you, James. So much. This really means a lot to me," she said with a smile. The two leaned in for a hug. "I'm sorry that for the past couple of weeks I've been so moody," she said as she hugged him.

"Don't worry about it. Things have been tough in your life these weeks," he said as he kissed her on her head.

"Yeah, well. I'm also starting my period, so…" she trailed off with a smile.

James looked at her in horror. "Can you handle that yourself?" he asked her cautiously.

Lily giggled. "Yes, that's something that I can handle. Although, a back massage would probably help," she said as she leaned back into him.

"Are you two done with the sob session?" the Fat Lady said from her portrait.

Lily wasn't feeling much better Friday, but she couldn't miss out another day of class because of her own emotions. She reluctantly got out of bed and got ready for school. She didn't tell anyone about her mum and neither did James. She wasn't going to bring it up unless it was absolutely necessary. It was just something she didn't want to think about. She did think about what James had said to her though, about remembering the good times she'd had with her mom, but it was hard to think only about those times. Her mind often drifted towards the worse moments. The main things though that kept Lily distracted where the questions that she'd never get to ask her mom. Was she ever proud of Lily and her accomplishments? Was she that much worse than Petunia? Did her mom really want her to be more like her older sister? Did her mother ever love her? She didn't want to think about what could have been, because they will never be now, but they were questions that she wished she had taken time to ask.

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Thursday, the 7th year Transfiguration students were desperate to see who was in the lead and by how much would they all need point wise to catch up before Saturday. Lily was in first, but was slowly being pursued by Ravenclaw, Charlie Mayer.

"Looks like Charlie's out for blood, eh?" Ronnie asked Lily with a smile as they observed the sand glasses.

"Yeah it sure does. He's always trying to do better than me, not that he can though," Lily said with a laugh.

"Yeah, and you've also got the Marauder's and whether you like him or not, Snape," Karen pointed out.

"Yeah I know. He's really moving up in the world with potions," Lily said.

"Kinda scary, ya know? I mean, think of what he'd be like if he went to the dark side," Ronnie pointed out.

The girls all shuddered a bit.

The bell rang and the class all quickly made their way back to their seats.

"Since it's Friday and you all got a free day in all your other classes, I decided to give you an easy day," Professor McGonagall said as she made her way to the front of the classroom.

The class cheered in joy.

"So, you're going to be doing a project."

The class groaned in disappointment.

"I have put you in teams and as a team you will each get an empty classroom. You need to change that classroom into the most comfortable living corridor that you can. You'll have to change desks, chairs and other items in the room into furniture and other items that you might want to use. Any transfiguration spell you use _will_ go towards you glass jars so try to be creative and have fun," she explained.

McGonagall tapped the board and lists of names appeared.

"Here are your teams and room numbers. Good luck, you have an hour and then I will be around to pick winners for rooms. The categories are most creative, best use of items presented, and most house spirited. Your time starts now," she said as she moved away from the board. The whole class rushed down to the floor to see the teams that they were in.

"How can you win most house spirited if all the houses are mixed together as groups?" someone asked.

"You'll just have to figure it out I guess," she said with a sly smile.

Lily found her name on the list. They were in an old charms room. Like someone had pointed out, she was not with a single Gryffindor. Instead she was with Connor Vance from Slytherin, Barry Fone from Hufflepuff and…Charlie Mayer from Ravenclaw.

"Looks like the best ones are working together, Evans eh?" he asked her. When she looked at the sand jars, he did seem to be right. Lily was in first place, Charlie was in second and Connor and Barry were tied for third. When she looked over at her boyfriend and his friends they were all giving each other hi-fives because they were dead last, so got put in a group together.

"Should be fun," she said with a fake smile.

Lily's group found their class room and opened the door with some trouble.

"Ug, looks like this room hasn't been used since my _parents_ went to school here," Charlie.

Lily just rolled her eyes.

"I think that we should come up with a game plan of some sort first, before we start designing. Like a theme. We also need to decide what kind of a room we want to design. Either a bedroom or living room, maybe a dining or sitting room-"

"Alright Miss Evans. You seem to know what you're doing, so hop to it," Charlie said with a wink.

Lily rolled her eyes in disgust again but picked up an old piece of paper that was left on the floor and transfigured it into a new piece of paper.

"Very smart, Evans," Charlie commented. Lily ignored him.

Eventually, Charlie stopped with the smart comments and the four of the teens worked together to come up with the idea of a sitting room. Connor and Barry were in charge of transfiguring the entire given classroom items into the furniture they wanted in their room and Lily and Charlie decided to take on the task of putting everything together and get the finishing designs the group decided on.

Lily looked over at what Charlie was doing. She wasn't hearing anything coming out of his mouth, but she swore that she saw lots of different colors coming from his direction.

"Are you performing wandless magic?" she asked.

"Yeah, something you can't handle?" Charlie asked with a sly smile.

"I can do wandless magic!" Lily cried defensively.

"_Really?_ Let's see what you can do." Charlie drew his wand and pointed it at Lily. Her eyes went wide and she groped around in her robes for her wand but couldn't reach it. Blue and green swirls of colors came flying towards Lily and she quickly ducked, afraid of the spell that Charlie sent would hurt her. The spell hit the back of the classroom and the back wall turned into a nice shade of green with a blue brush.

"Can't handle it, eh?" he said with a wink.

"You seriously want to go there, Mayer?" Lily threatened. She drew out her wand and the two started waving their wands around this way and that decorating the empty classroom to go with their taste. About a half hour in a knock at the door came.

James, Remus, Sirius, and Peter all walked into the room.

"Hey, people! Holy shit! **What are you guys doing? The Hanky-Panky?**" Sirius asked as he saw Lily and Charlie move around the room in odd ways.

Lily stopped her movement and looked at Sirius with raised eyebrows.

"What are you talking about? The _Hokey-Pokey_? How do you know about that?" she asked him.

"What's with the **wrinkled noses**? The Hokey, whatever it's called…you know that dance you did for James that night you went to Hogsmeade…remember," Sirius said while waving his hands around.

"You told him about that?" she asked James. James blushed in embarrassment.

"Um…yeah. I tell them everything," he said. "Except for what you told me last night," James said suddenly, remembering their intimate conversation.

"What? What conversation? When last night? What happened last night?" Sirius said with a gleam in his eyes.

"Nothing happened last night, Black. It's none of your business anyway, so shove off," she muttered, trying not to let her emotions suddenly get the best of her.

"Ok, what are you four doing here?" Charlie demanded.

"Um, visiting my girlfriend, that's what," James said as he walked over the Lily and put his arm around her waist.

"Am I not aloud to do this?" he challenged.

"Not while we're working on a project, no," Charlie said, his eyes flashing.

"Ok, fine. We'll leave. We were just checking out the competition anyway," Sirius drawled.

"Don't you have your own room to work on?" Barry asked.

"We finished. Took us about five minutes," Remus said with a smile.

"Looks like you've finally used some transfiguration magic than, eh?" Connor said with a smile.

"…eh, something like that," Peter answered.

"Ok, you're distracting _my_ group. Please leave before I make you leave," Charlie snapped.

"Alright, alright. See ya later, babe," James said as he gave her a quick kiss.

"Bye, guys!" Lily called.

"Ok, enough with the flirting, we have a competition to win," Charlie said as he clapped his hands together.

"Raw. Ok, I'm going, your highness," Lily snarled.

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At the end of the hour, all the 7th year students were brought back to Professor McGonagall's classroom. She put all the rooms up on a projector screen so the rest of the class could see what everyone else had designed. Lily, Charlie, Barry and Connor had come up with a green and blue combination type room that made you feel like you were at the ocean. Their furniture was a light brown color making it look like sand and plenty of light filtered the room making you feel like you were outside while sitting in there. Almost everyone else made bedrooms ranging from master bedrooms to children's bedrooms. The Marauder's room was the best out of all. Still going with their anti-magic movement, they just moved the desks and chairs around in the classroom so the class was facing the back rather than the front. They cleaned and repainted the room and found some old posters in the teacher's room that were left behind. The room looked like a regular classroom and no magic was involved for their work.

"I can't believe that they didn't change a single thing," a Slytherin in the front muttered.

"Um, yeah we did. The view in this room is different from the other rooms," Sirius pointy said.

In the end, Lily, Connor, Barry and Charlie won most creative, the Marauder's won best use of items present and Ronnie, Karen and two other Slytherin's won most house spirited by making their rooms a symbol of good and evil.

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Lily was walking around the perimeter of the lake for the tenth time for the evening. She just kept circling it, thinking harder than a person should. She was so deep in her own thoughts that she didn't even notice another person had joined her.

"Remus! You scared me," she cried while clutching her chest.

"Sorry. Do you mind if I join you?" he asked her.

"Not at all. I'm not really in the mood for talking though, so…"  
"Sometimes silence is the best remedy," he replied with a smile.

The two walked another five laps before Lily decided to break the silence.

"What's bothering you?" she asked him.

"Stuff."

"Want to talk about it?" she asked him.

"It's not something that can be solved by talking. It's…personal and I don't really think you would be able to fix it. What are you thinking about?"

"Stuff," she said with a small smile.

"Something that can't be fixed by talking?" he asked her.

"Yeah, sort of. Again, not something you would be able to fix," she said.

"I guess we're S.O.L then," he said with a laugh.

"What's that stand for?" she asked.

"Shit out of luck. Of course, if you want it to be child appropriate, then you'd say, shoot out of luck but…" Remus didn't finish his sentence because he started laughing.

Lily didn't know why, but what Remus said made her laugh as well, but tears started falling down her cheeks as well.

"Whatever's bothering you, Lily, don't let it eat you. Don't keep it to yourself because problems are much easier to solve if you don't have to hold the burden all to yourself. Believe me, it's not selfish to talk about your problems to others," he said with a gentle smile.

"Yeah. I know. I think eventually my problem will be solved. But for now, quite walks seem to be working."

"Yeah. Sometimes it's just easy to get away from the commotion so you can make some decisions for yourself. It makes you feel more _dependent_ if everyone makes decisions for you. I know from experience," Remus said with a small chuckle.

"Yeah, I know."

"Are you ready to go inside?" he asked her as they made another lap around the lake.

"Actually, I think I am. Thank you, Remus," she said with a smile.

Remus pulled Lily into a one armed hug.

"No problems. You're my best girl friend and my best friend's girlfriend…if that makes sense," he said with a chuckle.

Lily laughed as well. "Yeah, I get it."

The two walked back inside the castle and as soon as they were out of view, a boy and girl emerged from behind the bushed that Remus and Lily were moments ago in front of.

"Shit, that was close," the girl muttered.

"You're telling me. Think of what would be said if someone found out," the boy said breathlessly.

"Let's not think about that right now. Let's just enjoy each other's company while we still can," the girl said as she pulled him into another kiss.

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AHHH! Another, kinda, but not really cliffhanger! DUN DUN DUN!!!! I've, once again, made a poll that you all should go and take. It will take out one more minute of your life, so please do so. You're voting on the misterious person at the end of _this_ chapter. Also, I'm not gonna beg, because it seems the more I beg, the less I get, so please leave a review if you want to give me either positive comment or critical critisim. Either way, see you next chapter...whenever that may be...


	6. Chapter 6: Week Four: DADA

Alright, here's the deal. This has been sitting around since the beginning of the month, and I really don't want to edit it which is why it hasn't been posted yet. So i'm just gonna post it. I know that there might be some misspelled words, but hopefully it's not too bad. Here's chapter 6!

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Chapter Six: Week Four

Defense Against the Dark Arts

James woke up early on Sunday morning. Lily had left the night before to go to her mom's funeral. He had offered to go with her, but she asked him to stay at school; she didn't want to burden him. Because of Lily's situation, James felt a strong need to write to his own parents. He grabbed parchment, a quill and a jar of ink and quickly went to the Owerly. This late in November it was idiotic to walk around the castle with no cloke on. James on the other hand was going to the windowless Owerly with no cloke on. He was past the point of idiocy.

After warming up his ink jar between his hands, James quickly wrote a note to his parents, talking about everything that was happening at school. He did mention Lily, but only that she was his friend, not temporary girlfriend. He also informed them that for once, out of his seventeen years of existence, he would not be coming home for the holidays. He also suggested that his parents go on a vacation, "celebrate Christmas and the new year in the sun."

He sent his owl off with his letter and then quickly stopped by the Great Hall to grab a bite to eat and then headed back to the dorm.

James was bored. Even Remus wasn't up and James didn't know what to do with himself. He decided to finish his homework, but since him and Lily had already started it before she left, he was only busy for an hour. It wasn't until Remus got up, mumbled a 'morning' and headed towards the bathroom that James realized how much time he spent with Lily.

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"God, Prongs! You're awfully antsy today," Sirius snapped.

"Sorry. Can't help it."

The guys were sitting in the Common Room playing cards.

"He misses Lily," Peter commented.

"Yeah, so?" James shot back.

"I mean, you _miss_ her, right?" Peter asked with a smirk.

"_What?_ Ew, don't say that. No. I…I just hope she's…well!"

"Oh, I'm sure she's just peachy while staring down at her dead mother's face," Sirius drawled.

"Padfoot," Remus warned.

"Whatever. Just…let's not talk about this," James mumbled.

"Alright, my legs are starting to cramp up," Remus said as he shifted positions.

Sirius let out a bark of laughter and Remus glared at him.

"How long we been playing for?" Peter asked.

"'Bout four hours," Sirius automatically answered.

"Damn. Time for a break," Peter said.

"No!" James cried.

Sirius smiled at him. "Great way to pass the time, eh buddy?"  
"No…I just…like this game…a lot."

"Actually. I've got to meet someone in about half an hour," Sirius said as he stood up and stretched.

"And I'm starving," Remus said, following Sirius.

"Fine, leave. I've still got Wormtail!"

"Actually, I'm going with Mooney."

"Fine! Leave me! See if I care!" James growled.

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"Lily! Thank _God_ you're back," Remus said when he ran into Lily around eight that night.

She giggled and gave him a hug. "Why's that?"  
"He won't admit it, but James is going insane. He misses you terribly."

"I haven't even been gone for forty-eight hours."

"Yeah, well…to him it's been a life time and then some."

She laughed again. "Alright. I'll go find him. Where is he?"

"Dorm. You can go ahead up there. We don't mind."

"Thanks."

Lily found James lying on his bed, staring at the ceiling. She slowly crept over and laid down next to him.

"Lily," he breathed.

"I heard that you misses me," she whispered with a smile.

"A lot," he answered while nuzzling his head into her shoulder. "How was it?" he asked, his voice muffled.

She was quiet for a minute before she answered. "Emotional." She ran her hands through his hair. "Everyone from both sides of my family were there. I think that's what made it so real for me. My mom's mom _hates_ my father and that whole side, yet there she was, sitting boldly at the front without a single tear in sight. I knew that everyone would ask questions, that's why I didn't want you to go with."

"I could have handled it."  
"I know. But I didn't want to _deal_ with it. My mother's side is just so, _nosy."_

James let out a throaty laugh. "My whole _family_ is like that."

Lily chuckled. "I could probably lay like this forever," she commented.

"I don't mind."

"I think _my_ roommates might."

"So?"  
"Don't want them to draw any conclusions."

"Eh…"

"James Potter."

"Just sayin'"

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"What do you think we have in store for Defense?" Lily asked the guys while the gang was waiting for the bell to ring, signally class to start.

"I hope something awesome!" Sirius cried.

"Yeah. Awesome!" Peter repeated.

"Dueling. That's what we're working on," the young Professor Rosenthal said as he walked out of his office. "Might as well learn how to properly duel. For today only, I'm going to allow you to work with a partner on different spells that you've learned and then on Wednesday we'll start the competition. I'll partner you based on skill. So the rest of class is yours. Do what you want. Please don't burn down this classroom. You can leave when the bell rings." With a flourish, the professor left the 8th year's alone.

"Wicked. All of class to ourselves!" Sirius said with a smile.

With lack of adult guidance, most of the students spent the time gossiping. Lily and Remus of course, were the exception.

Lily turned around in surprise when someone tapped her on the shoulder. It was Keith.

"If you flick your wrist fast, the spell should work," he suggested.

"What's that supposed to mean?" she snapped.

"You're trying to break this glass, right," he asked, ignoring her tone and pointing to the glass sitting in front of her.

"More or less."

"Your movement is too slow then. Like this," he said as he slashed his arm down and flicked his wrist. The glass cup broke neatly in half. Keith muttered a "_repario"_ and the glass fixed itself.

"Thanks," she said dryly. Remus watched Keith carefully.

Keith cleared his throat. "Well, I hope I don't battle you in the finals," Keith commented.

"Why's that, Fox? "'Fraid you gonna loose to a girl?" James asked, joining in on the conversation.

"No. I would just feel obligated to letting you win," he answered, addressing Lily.

"Well, not it's on Fox. See you in the finals."

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"You know, this is kind of…kinky," Sandy murmured as he kissed her neck.

"Yeah? Why's that?"

"Anyone could walk in. That Ravenclaw prefect Sam Godly or even a teacher like Rosenthal. He's pretty sexy."  
The guy let out a low growl.

"Not better than you; don't worry," Sand said, letting out a low chuckle.

"Good, because I take this seriously."  
"I do too."

"Then why can't we tell anyone. My friends don't even know."

"You were the one who wanted to keep this a secret. You didn't want to hurt h-"

"Then let's go on a date. A real one, next weekend on the Hogsmeade trip.

"Are you sure?"

"As sure as I'm tired of sneaking around all the time, trying to hid this."

"Then it's a date," Sandy finalized.

"Cool. A real date," Sirius said as he leaned in to give Sandy a kiss fully on the lips.

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"Hey, Lils!"

"Lily looked up from her very large textbook, into the smiling face of Keith. She was in the library looking for some quiet, homework time with Christmas break starting next week. Ever student was putting their homework off until Thursday, if they could, every student accept Lily.

"Hey, Keith. What's up?" she asked while trying to locate her lost place in her book.

"Just, ya know, wandering around," he answered with a shrug.

"Wandering in the library?" she raised an eyebrow.

"Eh, it's something I'm not too familiar with."

Lily burst out laughing at that, and then quickly covered her mouth. Keith chuckled and then sat down next to her.

"Are you actually doing _homework_?" he asked her after she stopped laughing.

"Yes, because now, Thursday night when everyone is scrambling around to get their homework done, I won't have any of it.

"Who ya' gonna hang out with?"  
Lily frowned at him.

This time Keith laughed out loud while clasping Lily on the back with his much too large hand.

"I'm just messing with you, babe."

Lily's frown deepened when she heard the pet name he let slip.

"Where's Potter?" he asked, though it sounded as if he could care less.

"James is hanging with the guys tonight."

"Well, _obviously._ He never goes anywhere with his cronies. I meant, why isn't he with _you_?"

"Why does he have to be with me all the time?" Lily snapped.

"Well, a girl as pretty as you could be getting seduced by some other sleeze bag who wants a go at her," Keith said quietly while leaning towards her.

"Are you a sleeze bag trying to seduce me, Keith?" Lily asked, equally as quiet, but not moving towards him.

"Nope." He moved a couple more inches forward.

"You're not trying to seduce me?"

"Yes."  
"But you just said-"

"I'm not a _sleeze bag_ trying to seduce you."

"Oh," Lily breathed.

"Mr. Fox! Miss Evans! The library is for homework, research and reading. Not sickening make-out sessions. Mr. Fox, out!" a very young Madam Prince scowled.

Lily jumped away from Keith with a blush.

Keith's bright blue eyes held a glint in them. _Lust? Love? Want? A combination of the three? Is that possible?_ Lily didn't know, but as soon as she noticed it, the glint had vanished and Keith was walking away. Lily let out a breath that she was unaware of holding in. She took a couple of deep breaths to let the hammering of her heart subside and then she went back to her work, pushing herself harder so her thoughts wouldn't slip back to those of a certain ex-boyfriend.

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The defense class started their competition on Wednesday, quickly weeding out those who lacked in their defense skills. Professor Rosenthal just walked around with a clipboard, writing things down every once in a while. Luckily at the beginning, Lily and the Marauder's had not faced each other, but when it came down to it; Peter lost to Sirius, Sirius lost to Lily, Lily lost to Remus and Remus lost to James. Inevitably James and Keith were going to face off Thursday.

"Alright, can our winners from bracket one and bracket two step forward please," Rosenthal asked.

James and Keith stepped onto the large stage that was laid out in the center of the classroom. On one side of the stage, two rows of chairs were laid out. On the other side of the stage were the empty desks.

"There you go. Position yourselves across from each other…good. I want you to follow the normal duel procedures. I'm in need of a good show today.

"The rules are simple. You may use any spell you can think of besides the Unforgivable curses. No one from the audience can help you; don't' mutilate each other.

The class chuckled at Rosenthal's comment. James pushed his glasses up against his nose.

"Please bow. Thank you; wands at the ready. On my count off. Three…two…one…"

"Protego!" James cried while Keith shouted "Stupefy!" Keith's spell hit James' shield and ricocheted off into the audience. The class ducked and let the charm hit the wall.

"Flagrate!" James shot, Keith ducking out of the way of the line of fire heading towards him.

"Avis," Keith muttered before putting out the fire.

James battled at the birds pecking at his head, but Keith wasn't playing fair and so he muttered out, "Jelbeama," causing James' legs to go into spasms.

The classroom erupted in laugher as James tried to control himself.

"Look at you now, Potter. You look fantastic in front of your girlfriend," Keith taunted with a smirk as he walked towards James.

"Yeah, not as stupid as your large ego!" James cried as he swished his wand around. Keith's head started to swell up like a balloon. "Finite Incantatem," James said as he took the enchantment off his legs.

"Is that all you got, Potter?" Keith spat. "Incendio!" he said, throwing a wad of fire at James. James sidestepped and the fire hit the desk. The desk erupted in flames.

"Mobiliarus," James said as his charm hit the now flaming desk. He sent it hurtling towards Keith. Keith tried to block it but his shield repelled charms, not objects so the desk broke the shield and slammed into Keith.

"Take that, bastard," James muttered.

The desk exploded, sending wood and fire everywhere. Keith stormed over to James. He stood in front of him, breathing heavily.

The whole classroom was silent.

Keith sent a right hook, and hit James square in the jaw.

"You mother-" James cried as he lunged towards Keith. The other boy was not expecting that and so he went down with James on top. James was taking swings and punches while Keith was violently swearing and struggling to get the other man off of him.

"Enough…enough! ENOUGH!" Professor Rosenthal cried as he blasted the two boys away from each other.

While it looked like James had been scratched by Keith, the ladder had it worse. His nose was swollen and bleeding and a bruise surrounding his eye was quickly darkening. James stood up for another go.

"Whatever issue with each other the two of you have, has nothing-"

A green flowed from Keith's wand and hit James squarely in the chest. He doubled over, clenching his stomach. James made some reaching noises and out came a slug.

The class groaned in disgust and cheered in delight.

"Wandless magic. Impressive. Mr. Fox is our winner."

Keith got up and walked over to James.

"Lily let's you kiss her with _that_ mouth. Revolting." Having said the final word, Keith stalked off the stage and over to his friends. James let up another five slugs.

"Um…class is dismissed. Potter please clean your friends off the stage. Thanks." Professor Rosenthal got up and walked into his office, closing the door behind him. Sirius, Remus, Peter and Lily ran onto the stage.

"Bloody fantastic, Prongs!" Sirius cried while clasping James on the shoulder.

"That was actually a brilliant idea," Remus murmured.

"And really gross," Peter said, eyeing the distasteful slug.

"I'll look for a bucket," Lily said as she searched around the classroom.

The three friends helped James into a standing position.

"Here. I don't know how clean it is but…"

James retched some more slugs into the bucket Lily was holding. The four moved James onto one of the chairs off the stage and then Lily and Remus went back on to put the slugs into James' bucket, while Peter and Sirius reenacted the duel they had just witnessed.

"And then…Potter! Look out!" Peter cried as Sirius doubled over and pretended to start vomiting. Peter and Sirius started howling with laugher as James threw up another slug in time with Sirius.

"Hey, there," Lily said as she sat down next to James. She gently placed her hand on her back.

James ducked his head in the bucket.

"Look at me. Don't be ashamed," Lily said as she tilted his head towards her.

James growled in anger. "If-I…I lost! I lost to Fox!"

"They do say that fox's are sly," Lily said, trying to lighten up the mood.

"I lost to a Slytherin."  
"You made the crow laugh…"

"At _me_."  
"Trust me, James. No one will think any less of you."

"That's not even it. I looked so pathetic."

"I didn't think you were pathetic. You and Keith did some crazy things and that was so difficult, trying to block a spell rather than challenge it. It was genius.

"James! Ya' done barfing up nasties?" Sirius teased.

"You haven't for five minutes," Lily pointed out with a smile.

"Yeah. Let's leave the bucket for stupid Rosenthal to find," James muttered as he slammed the bucket down.

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Sirius pulled Sandy into a hidden alcove and started kissing her neck.

"Filtch is such a creeper," she murmured.

"I know," Sirius said in between nips.

Sandy grabbed his head and looked him in the eye.

"How do you get your hair so soft? I like it. It's sexy," she said as she ruffled it.

"It's all apart of my good looks and excellent genes."

Sandy ran her fingers through it again.

"It's so much softer than-"

"Sirius?"

Sirius and Sandy froze. Thinking quickly, he rubbed his face and neck really hard and then stepped out.

"Prongs? Did you see Filtch?"

"Is that why you were in the alcove?" James asked, his face twisted in confusion.

"Yeah. I was…getting food…not thinking my loud noises-"

"Okay. You have to come back with me! Lily and her friends challenged us in the game "Battle of the Sexes!" We can't loose!" James cried with a smile.

"Um…alright, I think that I dropped…something," Sirius lied.

"Here. How 'bout some light Lumous!" James said as Sirius cried "No!"

When the two looked in, no one was there. Only a lone piece of paper lay in the now lighted alcove.

James bent down, picked up the blank sheet of paper and then handed it to Sirius with a puzzled look.

Sirius gave a nervous laugh. "Made ya' look."

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PLEASE LEAVE A REVIEW! PLEASE...I'M ON MY KNEES!


	7. Chapter 7: Day 38

We all know it's been a very long time. Thank you to those who left reviews. Hope the next chapter is some-what acceptable for the wait.

Disclaimer: Keith and Lily's friends are mine, and everyone's words are mine. That's basically it...

Previously:

"…let's go on a date. A real one, next weekend on the Hogsmeade trip.

"Are you sure?"

"As sure as I'm tired of sneaking around all the time, trying to hid this."

"Then it's a date," Sandy finalized.

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"Where's Potter?" Keith asked.

"Why does he have to be with me all the time?" Lily snapped.

"Well, a girl as pretty as you could be getting seduced by some other sleaze bag who wants a go at her," Keith said quietly while leaning towards her.

"Are you a sleaze bag trying to seduce me, Keith?" Lily asked, equally as quiet, but not moving towards him.

"Nope." He moved a couple more inches forward.

"You're not trying to seduce me?"

"Yes."

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James carried some books over to Lily's desk, he noticed a snow globe on the ground.

"I collect snow globes."

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Sirius and Sandy froze. Thinking quickly, he rubbed his face and neck really hard and then stepped out.

"Prongs? Did you see Filtch?"

"Is that why you were in the alcove?" James asked, his face twisted in confusion.

"Yeah. I was…getting food…not thinking my loud noises-"

"Okay. You have to come back with me! Lily and her friends challenged us in the game "Battle of the Sexes!" We can't loose!" James cried with a smile.

"Um…alright, I think that I dropped…something," Sirius lied.

"Here. How 'bout some light Lumous!" James said as Sirius cried "No!"

When the two looked in, no one was there. Only a lone piece of paper lay in the now lighted alcove.

James bent down, picked up the blank sheet of paper and then handed it to Sirius with a puzzled look.

Sirius gave a nervous laugh. "Made ya' look."

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Chapter Seven: Day 38

Hogsmeade weekend had finally arrived and James was really looking forward to spending time with Lily— alone. Thinking back on their relationship, James had to chuckle a little. Sure they held hands, and cuddled and kissed in public, but James really just enjoyed spending time talking with Lily. She was an interesting person who had a lot of interesting things to say. Just thinking about her made a smile come up on his face. James didn't know what it was; just…there was something about Lily Evans.

Lily descended the stairs with Karen and Ronnie behind her.

"Hey Lils! Ready to get going?" he asked her as she flew by.

Without breaking stride Lily snapped, "Ask those two."

James looked at Lily's roommates for answers.

"We're taking Lily for the day. Sorry. We have to go dress shopping for the dance. You should understand," Karen apathetically said.

"Wait…what? No, this is Lily's and my day! You can't have her!" James cried, following the girls out of the Common Room.

"Sorry Potter, but we're already late. Maybe catch you at dinner? See ya," Ronnie said as Lily and Karen walked around the corner.

"But—! Women," James mumbled as he headed back towards the common room. Sirius quickly walked past James in that moment.

"Where are you going?" James cried.

"Um…I have a date. See you later," Sirius said, ignoring James.

"Are you serious?! With who?! Padfoot!"

"Guess it's the three of us, eh James?" Peter said as he clasped James on the shoulder.

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Sirius briskly walked to the front entrance of Hogwarts. Whether Sandy was going to show up or not, didn't matter to Sirius because if she was, he didn't want to be late. He kept checking his breath and armpits, making sure he was as clean and fresh as possible. He only stood around for five minutes when he noticed Sandy walking down the stairs in a long sleeved shirt and long blue-jeaned skirt on.

"You look, lovely," Sirius said with a smile, offering his arm.

"You don't look too bad yourself, Sirius," she answered, taking his arm.

"I got us the best carriage waiting out front," Sirius replied, leading the two out the door. During the duration of their ride to Hogsmeade, they did not talk about much, just about the weather and how fast this year was actually going. They were dropped off in front of Hogsmeade. After helping her down, Sirius and Sandy started their walk down the busy wizarding street.

"Where did you want to go?" Sirius asked.

"No where in particular. I mean, is there anything you have to get done today?" Sandy questioned.

"It's all about you today, babe." He flashed her a grin.

Sandy blushed and looked away. "James never said things like that to me."

"What a jerk," Sirius muttered.

"Tell me about it."

Knowing his friends would be in the Three Broomsticks, he opted to going to Madame Pudfoots, knowing that you had to be of the Y chromosome to hate that place.

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"Alright Lily, where do you want to start?" Ronnie asked as the girls entered the town.

"Not talking to you," she stiffly said.

"Oh, don't be upset with us, Lily. One day away from James won't hurt you," Ronnie teased.

"Besides, we never get to spend time with you and you _always _get to spend time with James. It's not fair. We should be shared equally," Karen reasoned.

Lily stuck her tongue out at them. "I'm not mad because I don't get to spend the day with James, I'm mad because I got kidnapped!"

"You'll get over it."

The girls wandered down Hogsmeade until they came upon Gwen's Gown's.

"Good afternoon ladies! I'm Gwen; is there anything I can help you with?" A short, tiny, brunette woman asked.

"Um…just looking around thanks," Karen said as the three girls walked to the back of the room. "Alright, I'll start here, Lily you go over there," she said pointing to her left, "and Ronnie, you go back to the front." The three girls split up and started searching through the dresses.  
Lily walked to the other side of the shop and searched through the gowns. There were some really expensive dresses that Lily knew she couldn't afford. She felt completely lost as the prices went higher up and it didn't help that Lily didn't even know what kind of a dress she wanted to wear. V-neck, strapless, halter top, no back, strapped back, big dress, little dress, short dress, long dress and everything in between was staring back at her.

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"Where do you think the girls are?" James asked.

"Where do you think Sirius is?" Peter questioned.

"Maybe they're all together," Remus joked.

"You think?" James seriously asked.

"Why don't we get a Butterbeer instead of just meandering around," Remus suggested.

The three boys shuffled into the Three Broomsticks and sat down at a table. There was a new waitress added to the Broomsticks staff and she quickly came over to the boys. She had blue hair in two pigtails and her legs seemed to be the width of a broomstick. She was very lanky and awkward.

"What can I get you?" she asked with wide eyes.

"Three Butterbeers, please," James asked with a smile.

"Of course," she nervously replied. She turned around and almost sprinted away.

James laughed to himself. "I love doing that to people."

"You're disgusting."

After the nervous witch delivered their drinks and the consumption began, James started to ease up and forgot that his girlfriend had abandoned him.

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"Okay Lily, here's the problem…_nothing in this store is green!"_ Karen cried. "I've found yellow and orange and red—which could work…but still…I don't know what we're going to do."

Ronnie and Lily were sitting in the chairs placed in front of the dressing rooms while Karen paced back and forth, ripping her hair out.

"You can't go to the dance, Lil. Simple as that," Ronnie said, deep in thought.

"Alright, you both are crazy. Why don't we each just find our own dresses? I am capable of finding my own clothes you know," Lily tried to reason.

"Yes, but you are the only one out of the three of us to actually have a _date_. Ronnie and I are just going and we'll meet someone there. But you…you've got to keep James wanting more!"

_Too bad things are gonna be done after the dance_, Lily thought.

"Alright, everyone better meet back here in half and hour with at least ten dresses, alright? I think I'm going to be optimistic and find a color other than green and black," Lily stated as she started walking to the front of the dress store.

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"Wow…that's all I can say right now," Sandy said with awe as the two walked into the little eatery.

"Mr. Black…and his date—follow me, please," a beautiful yet surly witch said as she lead the couple to Sirius' favorite place to dine, the booth in the back by the fireplace. Sirius lead Sandy to the seat that looked at the fireplace, knowing that the mood would be better set this way. After placing their drink orders Sandy asked, "Do you come here often?" This question shook Sirius because none of his other dates had every asked him that before. As if the timing couldn't have been more perfect, one of the million of the heart butterflies flew around the two's head's while red dust fell on their table. He blinked stupidly at her and then said, "I've been here a few times, why?"

"Well, it's just that the woman knew your name and I've never been here but…well…I guess it doesn't matter, does it?" Sandy said as she shrugged it off. Sirius made to grab for her hands but she pulled them away.

"You're the only person who's _mattered_ that I've brought here," he honestly said. Sandy made to say something but there waitress came back and set down their drinks.

"What will you two be having this evening?"

"Um…I'll be having whatever this is right here," Sandy said while pointing on the menu. "I think it's a burger."

"I'll have the same thing," Sirius said without taking another glance at his menu.

"Your food will be out shortly."

Once the waitress was out of ear-shot, Sandy said, "I think I'm allergic to the fairy dust!"

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After half an hour, all Lily could find was a deep purple dress with a gold trim and criss-cross straps and a royal blue dress, no straps but a criss-cross back.

"Alright, you two go first, because I've got nothing," Lily said when the other two showed up.

"Okay, that statement didn't even make any sense. Shouldn't _you_ go first since you have the least amount?" Ronnie asked.

Lily sighed, knowing what she said was logical and slowly walked into the dressing room. After she put the purple dress on, she quickly took it off while shouting, "Absolutely not!" to her friends outside.

"Aw, let us just _see_ it!" Karen begged.

"I've already got it off and the other one half on," Lily lied. After zipping up the dress, she looked at herself in the mirror. She spun around slowly, looking at all the angles. It didn't look as bad as Lily had though; she actually kind of liked it. She took her hair out of the ponytail that it was in and combed her fingers through her hair a couple of times.

"Alright, you better not laugh," she warned as she exited the dressing room.

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Around noon, James started to suffer from not having his drug in so long and he went on the prowl for Lily. After searching each shop twice James decided that she had either hid in the bathroom from him or gone back to the castle.

"James, the day is not even over yet. We can't go back," Peter tried to reason.

"Yeah, but I've got to at least see if she is there.. I mean, that's like my job, right?" he tried to reason.

"Do you think Lily would appreciate you following her around all the time?" Remus asked.

"No but that doesn't really matter," James said.

"Why don't you just _try_ to enjoy yourself today, please? I mean, it's a day to be boys, and I'll let you get away with things you probably shouldn't do," Remus begged.

"You know what, I've found a new reason to stay here; we're going to find Sirius and see who he's on a date with," James said while holding a triumphing finger in the air.

"James, I am beginning to think you feel the need to ruin others people's days since yours is," Remus said even though James was already heading to the beginning of Hogsmeade in pursuit of his best friend.

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After their food was delivered, there were no more awkward moments during lunch between Sandy and Sirius. Like real couples, they talked about things like school work and their hobbies. Even though there were no "house" problems between Slytherins and Ravenclaws, Sandy expressed just as much hatred towards them as Sirius did. She had, however, met Sirius younger brother before, who she wasn't very fond of, but could see the resemblance.

"Okay, I am _nothing_ like my brother…or rather he is nothing like me. We come from different parents, which in pureblood families is not unheard of," Sirius pointed out. Sandy chuckled.

"No, you have too many of the same features to be from different parents. He wasn't unpleasant or anything, he seemed to be trying really hard to impress me.

"Yeah, that's what he's like when he's sucking up to our mother. She even crazier than Regulus is," Sirius said as he pointed his fork as her. She laughed again.

After lunch, Sirius paid the bill and the two left to walk towards the end of the street where it was a little less crowded.

"You know, this area has a nice variety of shops and what not's, but it really isn't all that beautiful, you know? I mean, there aren't like fountains or scenery for people to look at. The shrieking shack is about all we've got," Sandy said as she pointed at the dilapidated building in front of her.

"Yeah, you'd think they'd build a…a Quidditch stadium or something," Sirius said while staring at the building.

Sandy slapped his arm with a laugh. "That's not what I meant."

Sirius smiled down at her and she smiled back at him, but in a shy way. Sirius' eyes reached hers and he started to lean in. Sandy backed away while putting a finger to his lips.

"Not yet," she murmured.

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"That boy sure knows how to make himself scare when he wants to," James muttered as the guys walked down the strip of Hogsmeade for the second time.

"James, my fingers are cold," Peter complained.

"Don't care," James answered.

"Seriously though, this is quite pathetic. Maybe they don't _want_ to be found. We should just enjoy this time together. I mean, does it really suck that bad when you hang out with Pete and I?" Remus asked.

"Remus, don't try to guilt trip me," James said while he pointed his finger.

"We should go Christmas shopping since this is the last opportunity we'll have before break," Remus suggested.

"That is such a stup— " James stopped short. Sitting in the window of one of the shops was a snow globe. On a silver base was a skating pond. There were many people skating on the pond, but they were boring due to their gray-scaled garb and monotonous due to the two colored skaters who skated around the gray ones until they met in the middle, after making a heart, for a kiss. A light snow fall was happening in the globe and in front of the globe stood a silver band that read "_Bliss."_

"Wanna make a stop?" Remus asked.

"Um…no that's fine. Let's keep going," James said without moving from his spot.

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All three girls came out of the dress shop with their pockets a little lighter. The dresses would be sent, by eagle of course, within the next two weeks. A light snow fall came, freezing the previously trampled ground, making the sidewalks slick. The girls moved with caution.

"Okay, it's really cold out here," Ronnie complained.

"Yeah, I think we should go get some butter beer," Karen agreed.

"I second that motion," Lily said with a smile.

The three girls quickly shuffled down the street when Lily slipped on some ice. She flailed her arms around and ended up smacking down on the street.

"Merlin, Lily you okay?" Ronnie cried as she offered a hand.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Lily grumbled as she found her footing and stood up. Sitting in front of her was a beautifully crafted. "Hey guys, look at this," Lily said as she staired at the beautiful display.

"That snow globe? Don't you have that one?" Karen asked.

"No…mine's…different," Lily mumbled as she got lost in the scene. Without her knowledge, she started to move towards the door of the shop. She entered and made her way to the desk. "Excuse me sir. That snow globe…the one on display…"

The cashier looked up. "Ah, the one in the front. Sorry miss but you're too late. It has already been bought. It was one of a kind I will say that and the person who bought that, well lets just say luck is on his side," the guy said with a wink.

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Keith walked down the street. He turned into a little shop; a light from the display out front shinned in his face.

"I'm here to pick up a purchase."

"Of course, sir. One moment, my assistant is preparing another package, then he will take care of yours."

As Keith exit the store, purchase in hand, the snow globe titled "Bliss" no longer sparkled on display.

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By five the sun had set on Hogsmeade and by six the lights in the Quidditch stadium had gone up. Even with the weather so low and the wind chill mild, James was out on the pitch making countless circles in the sky. He didn't know what was wrong with him, but today was miserable. He didn't get to spend it with his girlfriend, his best friend was on a secret date….it just wasn't the same. And then there was Lily. She confused James that was for sure. When she was around he felt comfortable, like hanging out with one of the guys, and that scared him. Shouldn't he feel _better_ more complete or something like that, when he was with Lily? Instead, it was like hanging out with a best friend. James wasn't used to those emotions with a girl. But what scared him more was the way he felt when Lily _wasn't_ around. What did this all even mean?

After an hour out flying James was sure he'd be in the hospital wing getting his fingers and toes chopped off. He took a long shower in the locker room and headed up the stairs for the dorm. As he was walking, he heard some laughter and squeaking shoes.

_'Love birds out after dark?'_ James thought. He smiled deviously and quietly went to investigate. What he saw made his heart skip a beat. Sirius Black, his best friend was pushing some girl against the wall, snogging her like no tomorrow. She turned her head away from him to give access to her neck and James saw her face: Sandy. Every thing in his body seemed to stop. He couldn't move, blink, breath….nothing. He just stood there like an idiot. James quickly retracted his steps and took off in a run towards the opposite direction. After, he'd run up seven flights of steps, he needed time to catch his breath. He doubled over with his hands on his knees. This day just proved to get worse and worse.

"Holy shit."

* * *

Please Review if you liked it. Review if you didn't like it...I won't freak out like I did on that other chapter....

:D


	8. Chapter 8: Week Seven

Okay, So a month isn't so bad, right? Anyway, this is the last chapter before, well basically the climax of the story. Hope you enjoy Chapter Eight.

Disclaimer: Keith and Lily's friends are mine, and everyone's words are mine. That's basically it...

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Chapter Eight: Week Seven

James didn't bring up Saturday to Sirius. He was asleep before Sirius entered the dorm that night, he got up before Remus and then wasn't at lunch.

"Probably with Lily since he didn't see her at all on Saturday," Remus suggested.

He opted for sitting in the back of the classroom when it was needed and the classes that he could afford to miss was spent in the library. By lunch, the whole gang was asking questions. Lily walked into the Great Hall and was quickly motioned by three-fourths of the Marauders.

"What have you and James been doing today?" Sirius asked.

"Excuse me? I though he was with you. I haven't seen him all day," Lily said.

"Yeah…but…you're his girlfriend!" Sirius cried.

"Doesn't make me his babysitter," Lily said. She sat down next to Peter and grabbed a piece of bread.

"So seriously, you haven't seen him?" Sirius asked.

Lily glared at him.

"You know, I haven't seen him since we got back last night. By the way, how was dress shopping Lily?" Remus asked.

"Um…good. Found something. I hope James likes it," Lily said as she picked at her bread. "You know, I feel like I'm missing something…"  
"While you think about that, can you help me with my potions essay?" Peter asked.

"Oh my gosh! I've got to go write mine!" Lily cried as she sprang up. She hurried down the aisle and started running up the stairs. Making sure she didn't trip up the stairs, Lily looked down at her feet and ran into someone.

"Oof! I'm really sorry," Lily said as she bent down to pick up the student's books. She handed the book to the boy.

"James!" She cried. She punched him in the shoulder.

"What was that for?" James asked as he rubbed his shoulder with one hand and grabbed his book with the other.

"Where have you been? I've been looking for you. Sirius is about to have a heart attack…"

"I've been busy," James said with a shrug.

"So busy that your friends haven't seen you?" Lily pointed out.

"I had to um…do my potions essay."

"Well, go and eat some lunch because I know you didn't eat breakfast," Lily said to him with concern.

"Yeah, I'll eat later. You said Sirius was in the Great Hall?"

"Yeah. You gonna go say hi so he stops asking me if I've seen you?" Lily asked with a chuckle.

"Um…yeah. Of course. See ya later Lily," James said as he walked around her.

Lily just rolled her eyes at his distant glance.

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James didn't go to afternoon classes. No one was able to find him and James usually spent the free period on Monday's with Sirius. Sirius was completely lost without his best friend. Eventually, James showed up for dinner. His face was bright red and snow was in his hair.

"James! Buddy! Where have you been?" Sirius asked.

"Have you been outside all day?" Remus questioned.

"Not all day, just part of the day."

"You haven't been in any of your classes though," Remus pointed out.  
"Yes I have," James argued.

"I haven't seen you."

"Okay, whatever. Um, I just came in to get something to eat then I have to do today's homework," James said as he grabbed an apple.

"Nice to see you to Prongs!" Sirius called. James had avoided Sirius' glance the whole time.

Both Tuesday and Wednesday went like Monday. James was just really distant and didn't let any of his friends stop him in what he was doing. Remus knew that James had moods, but Lily wasn't even in on the situation. That left concern for him.

"Sirius, if anyone is gonna get something out of him, it will be you," Remus said to Sirius Wednesday night.

"Okay, well in case you haven't noticed, James hasn't wanted to talk to anyone all week."

"I know, but he gets really stubborn and you know him better than anyone else," Remus pried.

"Okay fine. I'll go look for him," Sirius said as he started for the door.

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Sirius walked down the corridor alone; the echoes of his shoes constantly reminding him of this. As Sirius turned the corner, he ran into Sandy.

"Sandy! Merlin, you scared me!" Sirius said as he embraced her, which she didn't return.

"Um…yeah sorry."

"No, I'm sorry for not talking to you all week. It's just that James has kinda been on the D.L. and I don't know why. But that doesn't matter right now," Sirius said as he leaned in for a kiss.

"Sirius, I don't think we're gonna work out."

He immediately pulled back. "What do you mean…"

"I mean, hanging with you was fun, but I just don't feel anything."

"Anymore?"

"Well…no…not really ever. I just…I don't know. It seemed like a good idea at the time…"

"I don't know what the hell you are talking about right now," Sirius snapped.

"Well…it's just that I broke up with James. But then, I saw him with Lily, and he was really happy…and I just…"

"Wanted to use me," Sirius finished.

"No! No, that was not what it meant to me!"

"Really? Because that's the impression I'm getting right now."  
"Sirius…"

"Whatever. I've got shit to sort out right now," Sirius grumbled as he walked past Sandy.

"Come on Sirius! Don't be like this! You knew it wasn't right!" she cried.

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James looked out at the grounds of the castle from the Owlery. He was glad that no one had disturbed him for the past four hours. It was calming up here because no sound from inside or out reached this top part of the castle. James saw the star Sirius twinkling extra bright in the sky and he rolled his eyes.

The door to the Owlery opened quietly. It was Keith Fox.

James didn't say anything to him. He just moved to the side as Keith entered with his pristine white owl on his arm.

"Potter," Keith greeted. James nodded in return. Keith watched his owl fly away until he was not visible and then turned to James.

"Things bad between you and Lily?" Keith asked.

"Why would you automatically assume that?" James snapped.

"You just look…lost. And seeing as we've been hanging out more and more and the two of you less and less…" Keith trailed off.

"We're fine. Besides, Lily would never go back to you," James sneered.

"Really?! Are you sure about that?" Keith asked.

"I know it," James said without skipping a beat.

"We'll see about that after the dance," Keith said as he looked up into the illuminated sky. James followed his gaze and saw the moon, not full quite yet, shinning back at him. When he looked down, Keith was gone.

James picked up some straw off the ground and threw it over the edge of the railing. He watched the straw fall all the way until it hit the ground. The Owlery door opened again, this time a little more aggressively.

"What do you want now Fox?" James asked in an aggravated tone.

"Prongs?" Sirius' voice said.

"What are you doing here?" James asked.

"I could say the same thing. Where have you been all week? Is everything alright?" Sirius asked.

"I wouldn't expect you to understand," James grumbled.

"Come on. You tell me everything. What's going on."

James didn't say anything; he just moved away from Sirius.

"James—"

"Who the hell do you think you are?" James cried, facing Sirius.

"I don't know…"

"Sandy? Seriously?"

"James…you don't under—"

"You're right. I don't understand," James said while clasping his hands together. "So please, _friend,_ enlighten me. Was it the fact that she had a great body that made you attracted, or the fact that she was my ex-girlfriend that got you, or maybe the fact that she broke up with me made you want to go out with her? Am I even close? Or did you just want her so you could compete with me?"

"Is that what this is to you?" Sirius shot back. "You think being with Sandy was some sort of…game…humorous attribute to me? You're sick."  
"I'm not the one sneaking around with my best friend's ex-_girlfriend_!" James shouted.

"She came to me!" Sirius cried. "She came to me and started kissing me and starting feeling me up!"

"But you didn't stop it! That's who you were on a date with on Saturday, hum? Gosh, Sirius. Did you really think I wouldn't figure it out?"

"I didn't want—"

"Next time you want to keep someone a secret, don't go about practically having sex with them in the hallway. Then maybe people won't be suspicious," he snarled.

"That's not even what happened. Besides James, you've had your fare share of fun: Maggie C. from two years ago, while she was going out with Connor. Or how about sneaking around with Linda was declaring your undying love to Lily fifth year? What makes those different than now?" Sirius asked.

"This…this isn't about me! This is about you and how you betrayed me!" James cried.

"Well I hope you're happy because things are done between me and Sandy anyway."

"Oh let me guess, you went up to her and was like, 'I really like you but I don't want to hurt James' feelings so let's end this.' Please," James drawled.

"You don't even know the half of it!" Sirius cried, trying to defend himself.

"Whatever. I don't want to hear it," James said as he walked past Sirius.

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Lily and James sat on the couch in front of the fireplace, Friday night. They were holding hands, lost in their own thoughts. The silence was not uncomfortable.

"James, what's going on with you and Sirius?" Lily asked.

"Nothing."

"Nothing? Do you think I'm an idiot?"

"No."  
"So, I only get one word answers eh?" Lily asked with a nudge of her shoulder.

"We've had nothing to discuss over the past few days."

"Really? Sirius _always_ has something to talk about. What's going on?

"Seriously, nothing. We just...had a bit of a falling out. That's all," James said as he shrugged his shoulders.  
Lily placed her head on his shoulder. She sighed then said, "Alright. I guess I must pick my battles, so I'll let you win, but talk to me eventually, okay."

"Of course."

They sat in silence for ten minutes. The fire crackled and while Lily though about what James was thinking about, James thought about the quickly approaching dance that was a little under a week away. That was always what James though about. Of course their original plan was to end things after the dance. But, the thing was that James really didn't _want_ to. Why should they anyway? There really was no reason to. Why had their deal even come into being? Why date for all this time, why not just make a promise to attend the dance together? James didn't know. He didn't know the answer to what felt like anything anymore. All he knew was that the girl, _his girl_, lying on his shoulder wouldn't be his much longer. As much as he didn't want to admit it, what Keith had said was always present in the front of his mind. It scared him.

Just thinking about Keith made James' blood boil. He hated the guy. He hated what he had done to Lily, how he made her feel. But for some reason, it wasn't just Keith that James distrusted. While he couldn't even think it, he felt as if Lily would go running back to Keith as soon their ordeal was over with. These feelings might have spurred because of Sandy, who'd dumped him during a time when everything had felt so right between them. Maybe that's why James didn't trust Lily. Maybe he was afraid that everything that felt good, felt right about them, was going to end so she could be with someone else. But what did James feel? Did things feel _right_ between them? Because the word he would use was that things felt _natural_. Natural as in, it was natural for the two of them to be sitting on this couch, holding hands, staring at the fire burning. It was natural for the two of them to walk together to class, each meals sitting by each other and kiss goodnight before bed. Every motion, every feeling, was a natural part of their relationship.

Now that certainly couldn't be right. Not between couples. Shouldn't they feel some sort of emotion towards each other, like a stirring in the stomach, a palpitation of the heart? James looked over at Lily. There was no flutter, but his heart seemed to have sped up. His vision kind of glazed over and all he saw was her. The room started to spin around him, but Lily was steady, thus making him feel steady. All sounds seemed to be put on mute, while her steady breathing seemed to be the only thing he heard. She glanced over at him and smiled.

"What?" she asked as she blushed.

James couldn't bring himself to say anything to her. Was this what being in love felt like? These feelings of everything being so natural, so normal, so right? A single glance making him feel once more like the awkward teenage boy who doesn't know how to talk to girls.

"James, don't look at me like that, please. It makes me uncomfortable."

"What look?" James asked, snapping out of his trance.

"Well, you kind of look like you're… inspecting me. As if you are looking for something that isn't there. I don't know, it's a peculiar look you have," she said with a chuckle.

"Yeah, don't know what your talking about. Sorry. I do know that I'm about to fall asleep on you any moment though, so I guess I should turn in. But I can't seem to be able to pull myself away from you," James said as he leaned in towards her. "Maybe we could, spend the night on the couch, eh?" James said with a suggestive grin.

"What about the first years who didn't go home for the holidays."

"Their parents sleep in the same bed."

"Yeah, but that doesn't mean they should be able to intrude."

"On what exactly?"

"Our…peaceful slumber."

"Why don't we give them a reason to keep their mouths closed."

"Okay. Stop that! I'm going upstairs, good night," Lily said as she got up and moved quickly towards the stairs. She gave him a devious grin before she entered her dorm.

James just shook his head with a smile. If James wasn't in love with that women, then the emotions he would have while in love would probably kill him.

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Laundry was picked up every Saturday. Today was Sunday, James didn't have any clean dress clothes and there were six days until the dance. Brilliant. He'd gone through all his draws, the closet, under his bed and now James was digging though his trunk to see if there was anything he could spare.

"What have you lost?" Remus asked upon entering the room.

"Nothing. I have nothing to wear to the dance on Saturday." James pulled out text books from his third year out of the bottom of his trunk.

"Have you ever cleaned this out?" Remus asked as he picked up the old text-book.

"Yeah…only if my mother does it."

"So, you gonna tell me what's going on with you and Sirius?" Remus asked.

"Merlin! Why does everyone keep asking that?"

"Maybe because you two haven't talked in a while and you might consume your time hanging with Lily, but Sirius spends his time wandering around outside. The other day his face was bright red because he had really bad wind burn. Something happened and it usually takes a lot for the two of you to be mad at each other.

"How about the fact that he's a two-timing, back-stabbing friend, is what's up," James spat out.

"Why? Because he was seeing a girl he wouldn't tell you about?"

"Yeah, because that girl was my ex-_girlfriend!_"  
"Ah, I can see the resentment…and the reason as to why he kept it a secret."

James whipped his head up, hit the top of his trunk, curse and looked at Remus. "So you agree with him?"

"I agree with him keeping it a secret, yes."

"Remus, why?" James asked as he rubbed his head.

"Why should it matter to you? You weren't planning on going out with her again where you?"

"Well…no. But…I just…"

"You were surprised that your best friend could keep a secret from you," Remus said as he sat down on James bed.

"No one is at fault here. I mean, you're mad at him for a horrible reason. You don't even have a solid argument! Besides, you two better make up soon or you're going to be very alone at the dance," Remus said as he crossed over to his dresser.

"Yeah? What's that supposed to mean?"

"It…it means that I won't be attending the dance.

"Remus, if you need a date, I'm sure one of Lily's friends would go with you. And even if they won't, going stag isn't—"

"It's that time."

James stood up. "No. No it's not. I've checked the calendar…"

"No, it is. I can feel it. We just assumed that it wouldn't be on the dance because, honestly, who wants to think about _that_ when there's a dance around," Remus said with a shrug.

James gave a defeated laugh. He ran his hands through his hair. "Seriously? Why is this happening? Well, you know we'll go with you, just like always—"

"I want' you to go to the dance. That's _your _night."

"But it's your night too!" James cried. "This…this ruins everything!"

"James," Remus said as he walked over to him. "I've seen you and Lily together. I've never seen you so happy in my life. You two have that weird deal going on, but I know you want something more out of it."

"Mate, you're—"

"No. This is different. I want you to go to that dance with Lily, tell her how you feel. You and I, we will always be friends. Lily, she might not always be your girl."

"Remus, how are you going to do this alone?" James asked.

"I'll manage. Remember, before I met you guys I had to suffer. One night won't make a difference."

"I feel like a shitty friend."

"And I would be one if I didn't let you go," Remus said as he clasped James on the shoulder. "Have fun. Make sure she sticks around, because I really like her," hesaid with a smile.

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James knew he could find Sirius in the Owlery whenever he needed to talk. So James waited for four hours until he heard the door open slowly.

"Not again. I'll just—"

"Padfoot, wait," James said. Sirius stopped, but he didn't turn around.

"Look, I'm sorry for over reacting." Sirius scoffed at that. "It's just…you surprised me, that's all. I didn't know how to handle it. I was okay with moving on, but I wasn't okay that she moved on. It was awkward."

"Yeah. How do you think I felt?" Sirius asked as he marched over to James. "I had to sit around and watch you make goo-goo eyes at Lily. She understood where I was coming from," Sirius spat.

"Yeah, and I get that now. But, we are friends. No chick can change that. Bros before hoes, yeah?" James said as he offered his hand.

Sirius looked down at the offered hand, and then firmly shook it.

"You know about Remus, right?" James asked.

"I just found out."

"I feel bad for him," James said as he looked out the window.

"I do to. His life is so complicated. He can't even get into petty arguments like this, because he has always has a shitter situation in front of him," Sirius replied.

The two looked out across the landscape at the very still Whomping Willow.

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Give me some feedback in a review! What do you think is going to happen!? Also, you can vote on who bought the snow globe in the las chapter on my profile page! Vote Now! :D

Happy new year and have a wonderful January.


	9. The LeadUp

Disclaimer: Chain-link e-mail

Boy and Girl

Boy: I guess we're the leftovers in the world.

Girl: I think so, all my friends have boyfriends and we are the only two people left in the world without any special person in our lives.

Boy:Yeah, I don't know what to do.  
Girl: I know! Let's play a game.  
Boy: What game?  
Girl: I can be your girlfriend for 30 days and you will be my boyfriend.  
Boy: That's a great plan. In fact, I don't have anything planned for the following few weeks.

[ Day 1 ]: They watched their first movie and were both touched by the romantic film.  
[ Day 5 ]: They go to the beach and have a picnic. They boy and girl have their quality time together.  
[ Day 13 ]: The boy invited the girl to a circus and they ride through a Horror House. The girl was scared and she thought she touched the boy's hand but actually touched someone else's hand. They both laughed.  
[ Day 16 ]: They saw a fortune teller down the road and they asked for their future advice. The fortune teller said "My darlings, please don't waste the time of your life. Spend the rest of your lives together, happily." Then tears started flowing out of the fortune teller's eyes.  
[ Day 20 ]: The girl invited the boy to go to the hill and they saw a meteor. The girl mumbled something.  
[ Day 26 ]: They sat on the bus and because of the bumpy ride, the girl gave her first kiss to the boy...by accident.


	10. Chapter 9: The Dance:Part 1

A.N: Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own the characters...just their actions.

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[ Day 29; 11:35 P.M. ]:The boy and the girl sat in the park where they first decided to play this game.  
Boy: I'm tired. Do you want anything to drink? I will buy you one.I'll go down the road.  
Girl: A green tea, that's all. Thank you.  
Boy: Wait for me

Chapter Nine: The Dance: Part 1

Christmas morning came upon Hogwarts quickly. It brought chilling winds and a blizzard, with no sun to brighten the day. That didn't stop the joyful festivities inside though. The few Gryffindor students ran down stairs, gifts in hand, to share their presents and thanks with friends.

"Merlin's beard!" James cried. "Mum sent me underwear!" James cried as he held up the boxer briefs.

The group laughed at James' embarrassment.

"You know, they say that women always buy their men underwear. So, it's not that embarrassing," Lily said with a smile.

"Aw, how cute," Sirius cooed.

Remus unwrapped chocolate. "Jezz thanks! How did you know?!" Remus asked with sarcasm. Every year the guys got him some assortment of chocolate.

"Because it's your favorite thing, Mooney," Pete dumbly replied.

"Lils, I _did_ get you something, I just haven't wrapped it yet," James said sheepishly.

"What do you mean you haven't wrapped it yet?" Remus asked.

"Yeah, how long have you had that for?" Sirius chastised.

"Well…right now would not be a good time anyway," James said, making it the last thought of that conversation.

Lily had gotten James some books on Quidditch. "You would get me reading materials," James complained.

"Yeah, but it's on a topic you're interested in. So that's not so bad, right?" she asked. James smiled and kissed her on the forehead.

"Thanks."

The day consisted of eating and relaxing while the guys played with all their new toys. It was really enjoyable and took of the fact that the dance was quickly approaching soon. James offered to help Lily carry her things to the girls dorm, since he seemed to be able to defy the changing stairs.

"You can just set that stuff on my bed…" Lily said as James tossed it under her bed. "Or under the bed…I guess." He pounced on her bed with his arms folded behind his head.

"I like your bed. It's bouncy," James said with a smile.

"You're a nut."

James threw a pillow at her head.

"Ow! James Potter!" she cried as she picked up one of Ronnie's pillows and ran at him. James grabbed another of her pillows and used it to deflect her blow.

"Beat that, Evans!" he cried. He hit her twice and then knocked her pillow out of her hand. It went flying past the two of them and then there was a crash. Both immediately stopped and looked over at her night stand. Laying on the floor was a broken snow globe…the one Keith had given her.

Lily's face dropped.

"It's…it's gonna be—"

"No, no, no, no, no, no!" she cried as she hurried over to the globe. She picked the wet pieces up in her hands. The liquid made a puddle around the contents and the fake snow was literally melting on her floor due to the oxygen exposure.

"I'm sure I could fix it…just let me—"

"You can't fix this." Lily looked at the pieces in her hand. She then picked up the label that had Keith love for her written on it.

She stood up with the pieces in her hand. She walked over to the garbage can and tossed them in, without taking another glance.

Lily woke up the morning of the dance and she felt exhilarated. She got out of bed and looked out the window. The brightly shinning sun left a sparkling affect on the freshly fallen snow which blanketed Hogwarts' grounds.

Karen and Ronnie must have gotten to the Great Hall because there was a tray of baked goods sitting on her desk. Lily walked over and grabbed a bagel. She spread some cream cheese on it and sunk her teeth into the warm bread.

Steam flowed from the bathroom door as Karen walked into the dorm.

"Good morning, sunshine! Enjoying yourself?" Karen asked as she walked to her wardrobe.

"Fine. I see you've already cleaned up," Lily commented.

"Yeah, Terror 1 and 2 have disappeared. I wanted to get in and out before they came back," Karen explained.

"Where's Ronnie?"

"She needed to have her dress fitted so it's coming by owl post today. Should be here soon."

"Any idea what you're doing for your hair?"

Karen took the towel out of her hair and ran her fingers through it.

"Whatever my wand decides. I don't know," Karen answered.

"Your wand? What about the traditional 'best friends do each other's hair all day' tradition?" Lily cried.

"Who's tradition is that?"

"A…well I guess it's a muggle tradition. Either way, it will be _so_ much fun. I could do your hair and add cute pins in it. Oh! And your make-up! Oh Merlin! There's _so_ much I could do with your eyes!" Lily beamed.

"What's she going on about?" Ronnie asked when she walked in, package in hand.

"Lily wants to make it a _day_ of getting ready for _tonight's _event," Karen explained.

"Why don't we just use magic?"

"It's a tradition!" Lily cried as Karen mimicked her.

"Why would we do that?"

"Because…Ronnie…it's fun!" Lily whined. "You'll see."

"Okay, only if Ronnie and I _both_ get to work on you _and_ you don't get to see what we're doing until we're done."

"Fine!"

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Lily walked down the stairs, the front of her dress gathered in her hands.

"What do you think?" she asked James who stood at the bottom of the stairs.

James took in her appearance as a whole. She had picked the dark purple dress with gold trim. The Grecian style was flattering on her body.

Her hair had a French-braid in the back, each cross intersected with a diamond stone that matched her dress. The rest of her hair was pulled into a high pony-tail and curled.

Since Lily was pale, she had on subtle make-up; a light brown eye shadow and pale pink lip gloss. She was stunning.

"You look…amazing," James said as he stared.

"You're not just saying that?" she asked, stepping real close to him.

"If I were lying, I would just avoid the question."

James leaned in to kiss her, but Lily pulled away.

"Do you want to wait for Sirius?"

"Nope. I'll see him and Pete at the dance. Tonight is for you and me," James said with a smile. He offered his arm and the two walked side-by-side, linked.

Lily and James made small talk as they walked down to the Great Hall.

"Merlin! Lily!" Karen cried as she walked up to Lily, Ronnie close behind.

"You guys saw me not even twenty minutes ago!" Lily said while hugging each girl.

"James, have you seen Remus?" Ronnie asked.

"He's with his mom. She's very ill," James said, not skipping a beat.

"His mother is always sick," Karen said.

"Yeah, and I though he as gonna be back for the dance," Ronnie agreed.

"It's not his fault that his mother has an on-going illness," Lily defended.

"Um…yeah. She has cancer, so frequent visits are a must," James said while looking at Lily.

"Whatever. There are plenty more guys to flirt with. See you two later," Karen said. The two girls filtered into the crowd, leaving James and Lily alone in the hall.

"Thank you," James murmured.

Lily didn't know why Remus frequently left the castle. She never bothered to ask him, or really take notice of his absences. All she knew was that it was something serious that only Remus and his friends were in on. She wasn't going to push the mater.

"You're welcome."

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Lily and James were as close to the center of the floor as possible. They kept to themselves, not really joining in on groups dancing. They did participate in all the corny line dances though. Lily danced with her friends while James stood there awkwardly.

"Come _on_, James!" Lily said with a smile. She grabbed James by the tie and reeled him in. The girls all laughed as James looked mortified.

After two hours of dancing, James started to get thirsty.

"I'm going to go get something to drink."

"I'll go," Lily offered.

"Okay, why would I agree to that?"

"Because… someone needs to save our spots and you know at my size that is not possible," Lily reasoned.

"That's got to be the worst excuse."

"Don't care. I'll be back," Lily said as she flitted away.

James followed her with his eyes until she disappeared. When he turned back, Sandy was standing in front of him. She put her arms around his neck while James stood there uncomfortable.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

"Come on, I'm entitled to at least _one_ dance," Sandy reasoned. James put his hands on her waist. "She shouldn't mind. I'm not a threat."

"Lily's _not_ threatened by you," James defended.

"_You _sure sound threatened."

"Why did you come over here?" he demanded, stepping away.

"I don't want you and me to be like this. We don't have to be best friends, but I'd like to be civil, at least. What happened between us, that was in the past, James. Let's not fight," Sandy said with a solemn face.

James closed his eyes for a second. "Sandy, I don't want _anything_ to do with you. You turned me towards… the most _amazing_ women I've ever met. For that I am thankful. Other than that, I don't want to be anything more than two people who once knew each other. So, sure, civilized people, that's all I can handle.

"James—"

"Sirius, on the other hand, he's looking for something. You screwed him over. Don't mess with him if its only for your benefit," James warned.

Sandy stepped back.

"I have no feelings for Sirius."

"Then I don't want you bothering him."  
"Even if I did like him, I don't think I could even go out with him. He's a marauder; once you've had one, you've had them all," she sneered. Sandy left with a flourish of her dress.

"Were you dancing with another woman?" Lily asked James as she approached with two drinks in her hand.

"No. Of course not."

"Because if you were, I am entitled to throwing a bitch fit right now, which includes, but is not limit4ed to throwing both our drinks in your face," Lily said with a laugh. "Oh! I requested a slow song, since they haven't played any yet. It might be a while since I had to suggest it on this list and there were two pages, but still, keep an ear out."

"Of course."

After an hour more of dancing, no slow song and Lily's beverage had made it's way through her system. James needed to step outside anyways, so while Lily used the restroom, James was going to look for a secluded spot outside.

After much difficulty getting her dress up, Lily flushed the toilet and washed her hands. She stared at her image in the mirror. Karen and Ronnie really had done a great job on her face. She didn't look made up at all. In fact, she looked very natural, just not as pale.

Another stale flushed and out walked Rochelle. Her blond hair was in simple large curls. Her eyes weren't the usual bright icy blue color, but looked watered down, sad.

Lily felt very awkward but she couldn't move away. She played with her hair while Rochelle washed her hands. Lily noticed the slight bump of a stomach and no ring on her hand.

Rochelle grabbed a towel out of the basket provided. Hers and Lily's eyes met in the mirror.

"You look…rather stunning tonight, Lily," Rochelle complemented.

Lily was a little taken back. "Um…thank you. Your hair looks wonderful," Lily said, avoiding her gaze. Lily had barley seen Rochelle or Karman over the past two months. Probably because Rochelle had been with Nick. Seeing as there was no ring, Lily figured she be seeing a lot more of the blond again.

"Have fun tonight," Lily said as she started to leave. As her hand touched the door, Rochelle called out,

"I don't want your pity."

"I haven't offered it."

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James stepped outside and let the cool night air wash over him. It was really hot in the Great Hall and Dumbledore made the outside warm enough to be out there without feeling the harsh winds of winter. Hedge-made alcoves seemed to surround the perimeter and the first couple or so on either side were occupied. James turned to his right and started to think about the only thing ever on his brain… Lily.

The conversation he had with Remus the other day kept coming back to him. He knew that, technically, Lily was free after tonight, but he didn't want her to be. James wanted to keep Lily forever. He loved being around her, everything about her, everything about _them_. James rolled his eyes. These were the same thoughts he always had. But he couldn't say that all to Lily. No, he'd sound mad. He needed to come up with a creative way to tell her how he felt without scarring her way. James finally reached a spot that wasn't occupied. The view was of the Forbidden Forest. James sat down on the offered bench.

"Maybe I could bring Lily here," he thought. "We're so far away from the castle that no one would bother us. But what to _say?_" James scratched his head. "You mean more to me then…my broomstick does, okay, you're right, you're of equal importance, but if our house was on fire, I'd get you first!" James slapped his forehead. "Lily, when I'm around you, I feel as if my heart has exploded. Nothing seems to go where it should and my brain seems to shut down completely…or maybe that's too mushy. Okay, Lily if I had to choose between you or my friends I would pick—"James saw a drunk figure walking in the distance.

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Lily walked out of the bathroom the same time Keith Fox did.

"Lily! Wow, do you look amazing!" he said with a smile. Lily blushed. "May I escort you back to the dance?" he asked, offering his arm.

"Um…actually, I need to find my date, James Potter. He should be close by," Lily said as she started to walk away.

"Well, a pretty girl like yourself shouldn't walk alone."

"Alright, fine."

The two walked side by side silently, lost in their own thoughts.

"He's probably inside waiting for me on the dance floor. Thanks for walking with me, Keith," Lily said with a smile.

"I'll go in with you. We could look together. I mean, I'm sure his big head won't be hard to find, but it _is_ dark…" Lily glared at him.

"Oh come on! I'm kidding."

Lily was starting to get a little paranoid. First off, she never knew there were this many students at Hogwarts. Second, none of these millions of students seemed to be James_ or_ his friends. Lily felt helpless and she didn't like it.

"Okay, maybe he's outside," Lily said.

"Well, if he's hanging outside then I'm sure you can spare a dance with me," Keith reasoned.

"Keith…"

"One dance can hardly be harmful."

"Let me look outside."

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James was grounded to his spot. As the figure got closer, he realized they weren't drunk, but limping. Once the limping figure came into sight, James knew exactly who it was.

"Sirius?" James asked, looking at his injured friend.

He wore nice dress pants and a white button up shirt, but no tie or jacket or dress robes. There was a tear in the knew of his pants. Worse though, there were three large gashes on his abdomen, where the blood seeped through to the surrounding ripped shirt and his face had a scratch the length of his cheek. Sirius was breathing heavily.

"Remus…"

James' eyes opened wide. "Where is he? Did he bite you?"

"No," Sirius coughed and started gasping for air. He doubled over and groaned in pain. "Shit. Um, I felt bad…that he was alone. I…had no reason to go to the dance anyway," he bitterly said.

"Sirius? Where is Remus?"

Sirius help up his hand. "Pete met me there…we decided to go to the Forbidden Forest."

"Damn it, Sirius! Where the hell is he?!" James cried.

"I don't know!" Sirius cried back. "We were in the forest when we were attacked. It scratched me and then attacked Remus. I…I lost Pete. I don't know…he could be eaten for all I know," Sirius breathing slowed down and he stood upright.

"We have to go back in there. Remus could be hurt," Sirius said concern on his face.

"_Really?_ Where did you last see him?"

Sirius pointed off in the distance.

"Let's go," James said. The two took off in a run without a single glance back. Had he looked back, he would have seen a frantic Lily looking for him. And had she, upon her arrival, looked to the right rather than the left first, would have seen an angry James, spiriting towards the forest. But neither did so, and they missed each other by seconds, bringing a sense of abandonment into Lily's heart.

The slow song Lily had requested over an hour ago came on.

"This was supposed to be our song," Lily murmured as she held back tears.

"Lily, would you like to share this dance with me?" Keith asked, offering his hand.

Lily nodded her head as she took the offered hand. She followed Keith back into the Great Hall where he took her to the dance floor. Keith put his hands around her waist while she placed hers wrapped around his neck. She laid her head against his chest and let him lead her in their dance. As Lily and Keith danced, James willed himself to run faster and as the forest's edge came into view Sirius and James changed into their animagus forms. James completely cleared his head as he let the transformation overcome him.

* * *

Part Two soon. Leave reviews in the mean time :D


	11. Chapter 10: The Dance: Part 2

A.N. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: Same as usual...I only own their actions.

* * *

[ 20 Minutes Later ]: A stranger approaches the girl.

Stranger: Are you a friend of this boy?  
Girl: Yes, why? What happened?  
Stranger:A reckless drunk driver ran over him. He's in critical condition at the hospital.  
[ 11:53 P.M ]: The doctor walked out of the emergency room and handed the girl a green tea and a letter.  
Doctor:We found this in his pocket.

The girl reads the letter. It says: During these few weeks, I realized that you are a really cute girl and I'm really falling for you. Your cherished smile, everything. But before this game ends, I would really like it if you would be my girlfriend for the rest of my life. I love girl crumpled the paper and shouted: I don't want you to die! I love you too! Remember the night of the meteor, I mumbled something. I mumbled that I wish that we would be together forever and that we would never have to end this game. Please don't leave me! I love you! You can't do this to me

Then the clock striked 12. His heart stopped pumping. It was the 30th day.

Chapter 10: The Dance: Part 2

The song Lily had requested ended some time ago and other upbeat songs replaced it. Lily and Keith kept their slow dance rhythm, letting everyone move around them. The hall emptied gradually, but Lily and Keith didn't move. Soon enough, the hall was empty. Keith stopped moving.

"Lily?"

"…yeah?"

Keith sighed. "What's—"

"I guess this is good-night," Lily said before he could finish.

"I was gonna offer to go outside."

"Well…technically…"

"We can't be in here…but that doesn't mean we can't go out there," Keith suggested.

Lily let him lead her outside. As Keith has said, all the couples had migrated from inside to out. Many of the spots were full, but Keith found an empty spot towards the left all the way at the end of the walkway. The two sat down in silence.

"Look, Lily. This is going to be really hard for me to say, so I'm just gonna lay it out. I _really_ like you."

"Keith…"

"No…let me finish. I don't even want to talk about what happened because that was necessary. I've missed talking to you and being in your company. I miss your simle, your laugh, everything. I feel so utterly incomplete without you. I don't know _why_ I needed to hurt you to realize this, but I would do it a hundred times over if it meant that I got you in the end. I want you. I _need_ you, all of you." Here, Keith took Lily's hands into his own. "Lily, I…I think I love you."

Lily looked away, she didn'6t know what to do, what to say. She started to shake her head.

"Why? Why are you doing this to me?"

"Lily…I…"

"Keith. I respect your courage, but I think…I think that I've moved on." She thought about the broken snow globe that lay empty, incomplete in the trash.

"Moved on? To who? Potter? He left _you_ tonight. Do you know where he is, Lily?" Keith asked, his voice rising. Lily started to remove her hands, but he gripped harder.

"Keith, you're scaring me. Stop it."

"I've had to watch the two of you for the past two months. It's driving me insane! James Potter is not the guy for you; you're _above_ that, Lily."

"Then you nothing about him, Keith."

"I need to talk a walk," Keith said. He threw Lily's hands away from him and stormed off. Lily didn't call him, because she was glad that he left. She took off her heels which were creating blisters on her feet. She rubbed them to sooth away the pain.

Lily looked out towards the Forbidden Forest and saw a staggering figure. James Potter clasped in the snow eight feet away from her.

"James?" Lily called. He didn't answer her. She slipped her shoes back on and ran out into the snow. She ignored the burning sensation her feet felt from the snow and knelt besides him.

"James…can you hear me? Answer me!" she cried. Lily pulled James closer to her. He was covered in blood. There were huge gashes on his chest and what looked like teeth marks on his face.

"Help! Someone help me!" Lily cried out as tears started rolling down her face.

"Lily? What's wrong?" Keith asked as he ran towards her. "Is that Potter?"

"Something attacked him," she said, not taking her eyes off of him.

"Sitting in the snow won't do anything," Keith grabbed James and hoisted him over his shoulder. Lily got up and quickly followed behind.

"Madame Pomfrey!" Keith called when the two entered the Hospital Wing.

"What could possible have gone wrong at this time of night?" she asked as she exited her sleeping chambers. She was still dressed.

Keith laid James on the closest bed to him.

"Merlin's beard! What happened to him?" Keith asked now that he had a better view.

"I don't know. He collapsed in the snow. He didn't say anything to me." Tears still rolled down her face.

"He was alone?" Madame Pomfrey asked as she moved to her supply cabinet.

"Um…yes. He was alone."

Madame Pomfrey grabbed a bottle with no label and some cloth. She poured liquid on the cloth and then placed it on James' face.

"Have you seen…anything unusual tonight?"

"Madame Pomfrey, what do you think happened to him?" Lily asked.

She didn't answer at first. "Miss Evans, please go and get Professor Dumbledore."

"I'm not leaving him."

"Fox…don't make me ask again." Keith nodded and then left.

"Pull up a chair, Miss Evans." Madame Pomfrey cleaned James' wounds. Lily held his hand in her own while Madame Pomfrey worked. She cleaned the gashes on his chest and then healed them with her wand, but the wounds kept bleeding. She decided to cover them the muggle way; with gauze pads and medical tape.

"Why doesn't he stop bleeding? Can't you fix it?" Lily questioned.

"I'm trying my best."

"Well, it doesn't seem to be working!"

"Miss Evans," she warned with a raised voice.

"Is he suffering?" Lily asked quietly.

"Not while he's asleep."

Just then Keith entered with Professor Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall.

"What happened?" McGonagall asked.

"I am wondering the same thing," Madame Pomfrey said.

"Miss Evans, Mr. Fox, could you leave the three of us for a little bit, please," Dumbledore asked.

"Come on, Lily," Keith said, beckoning her along.

"I'm not leaving him," she said sternly.

Dumbledore moved their huddle over some way, out of what he thought was listening distance.

"Do you think it was—" McGonagall questioned in a frightening voice.

Madame Pomfrey nodded her head. "I don't know how he got out, though."

"Poppy, how serious is this?" Dumbledore asked.

"The wound on his chest looks worse—"

"Wouldn't you rather sleep in your own bed?" Keith asked her. "I'll stay here with you."

"No, Keith. Go to bed."

"But—"

"Shut up!" she hissed.

Keith left Lily sitting on the chair. She didn't take her eyes off him thinking through the parts of the conversation she had just listened in on. Some time later she dozed off. She woke to the sound of hurried feet.

"What's going on here?" Madame Pomfrey cried.

Lily woke with a startle. She looked off towards the double doors and in limped Sirius with Remus. His arm was around Sirius' neck and he stumbled as he moved.

"Madame Pomfrey, how's it hangin'?" Sirius asked with a smile.

"Where have you been? With him?" she asked as she took Remus' legs into her arms. The two moved him into the bed next to James.

"Eh…more or less."

"Unbelievable. I _told_ him…" Madame Pomfrey muttered as she moved to her medicine cabinet.

Lily stroked James' hand as she looked over at Remus.

"Did the same thing…" she didn't finish after Sirius nodded,.

"What…what hap—"

"Here, Black. Drink this." Madame Pomfrey handed him a clear vile. Sirius guzzled it in one go.

"What was that?" Lily asked.

"I don't ask, I just obey," Sirius said with a wink. He leaned back in the bed he was sitting on, and in mere minutes, he was asleep. The only sound filling the room was the steady sound of the three boys sleeping. Speaking of which, where was Peter? He would know what happened. Lily quickly got up, but then James thrashed around in his sleep. She immediately sat down. She would not leave James' side. Madame Pomfrey came over and started working on Sirius' wounds while a potion for Remus simmered.

Lily looked down on James while she smooth the hair on his head away from his eyes. She held onto his hand tightly. Everything was quiet and the sun was shinning down on James, illuminating him.

"You know, we've been through a lot these past couple of months. It's hard to believe that only two months ago I was…throwing away a _rubber duck_ family," Lily said with a chuckle.

"_You and Keith have…a rubber duckie family?" James asked with raised eyebrows._

"_Yes! Can we please move on?" she asked._

"_Yeah, sure. Whatever," James said as he tossed the duck into the garbage can._

"_Wait! Don't throw them out!" Lily cried._

"_Why? You want to keep your sick, twisted duck family that you started with your ex-boyfriend? As your current boyfriend, I don't think I'm too fond of that."_

"_Alright, alright. Good-bye, Claire," Lily said sadly as she tossed a duck with a pink bow on its head, into the trash._

"I know…pretty pathetic, huh? But in my defense, it wasn't as bad as when you and Keith fought over me."

"_Hey, baby," James said as he approached the two._

"_James," Lily said, he left eyebrow raised. "What's up?"_

"_Oh, I just came to visit _my girlfriend_, ya know, see if she, _my girlfriend_, needed any help because, well…jeez…cuz I'm her _boyfriend_, I guess," James spat._

"_Well, that's very nice of you, but you need to be talking like that,_ babe,"_ Lily said, catching on to his game._

"_Is there anything you need?" James asked, hoping his voice didn't sound too desperate._

"_No, Potter. Why aren't you watching our potion?" Keith asked, glaring at James._

"_Actually, could you go get these ingredients, please?" Lily asked him, handing James some parchment with several ingredients on it._

"_No problem, Lily. That's what _boyfriends_ do."_

_James strode off with a very smug grin on his face. He looked around in Slughorn's ingredient cabinet, but it was hard to locate certain items in the dark. He looked at the back wall, trying to decide if Lily wanted fresh frog legs or frozen ones when he was spun around and slammed against the wall._

"_What the hell is your problem, Potter," Keith snapped._

_"What is my problem? You're the one who's….who's all up on my girlfriend!" James cried, shoving Keith's hand away from him._

_"She doesn't even fucking like you. She's dating you out of pity. You may say that you're "dating," but you act more like friends. Although, I don't even know what kind of friend she sees in you. As soon as your little…game…ends, she'll be back with me, no doubt. She still likes me, and you're just one of those guys who she'll never even glance at once she dumps you. You're a piece of trash, Potter, and it's time Lily threw you out." With his final statement, Keith grabbed the supplies James was holding, spun on his heel and left. "Clean up your mess, Potter," he said on his way out._

James grunted in his sleep. "No, you were just being the jealous boyfriend. It's okay though. I think it's cute." A single tear rolled down her cheek. "Of course, I didn't give you a very good reason to _not _be suspicious. Keith and I did have our moments together. I don't know how to explain it, though. It's like, when he's around me, he puts on this aura, this_ charm_ that is so hard to resist. He makes me want to do crazy things, think crazy thoughts, be a crazy woman! So, yes, James, I am admitting that to an extent, Keith Fox makes me weak in the knees. You were right, when we played hide and seek, Keith was with me."

_"We did some pretty crazy stuff together," Keith said._

_"Yeah, we did."_

_"I miss it. I miss doing this, just talking. I miss you," Keith said as he turned and looked Lily in the eye._

_Lily returned his gaze She could see the lust forming in his eyes, and it scared her a bit, but she didn't move._

_Keith looked from her eyes to her lips and then back to her eyes. He then leaned in slowly— and kissed her._

"_Get away from me!" she cried._

_"Lily, it was a mistake breaking up with you," Keith said, his breathing slightly hitched. "I want you to go out with me again. Dump Potter and go out with me again."_

_"Ew, Keith, no. You…you're something of the past. I…I like James right now, and that's who I want to be with. You've lost your chance and I've got to go," Lily said. She started to move away from him._

_"It's not that James Potter isn't good enough for you, it's that you're too good for him," Keith called out._

"…or transfiguration class…"

_Lily turned around in surprise when someone tapped her on the shoulder. It was Keith._

_"If you flick your wrist fast, the spell should work," he suggested._

_"What's that supposed to mean?" she snapped._

_"You're trying to break this glass, right," he asked, ignoring her tone and pointing to the glass sitting in front of her._

_"More or less."_

_"Your movement is too slow then. Like this," he said as he slashed his arm down and flicked his wrist. The glass cup broke neatly in half. Keith muttered a "repario" and the glass fixed itself._

_"Thanks," she said dryly. Remus watched Keith carefully._

_Keith cleared his throat. "Well, I hope I don't battle you I the finals," Keith commented._

_"Why's that, Fox? 'Fraid you gonna loose to a girl?" James asked, joining in on the conversation._

_"No. I would just feel obligated to letting you win," he answered, addressing Lily._

"Or whenever I was in the library.."

_Keith laughe4d out loud while clasping Lily on the back with his much too large hand._

_"I'm just messing with you, babe."_

_Lily's frown deepened with she heard the pet name he let slip._

_"Where's Potter?" he asked, though it sounded as if he could care less._

_"James is hanging with the guys tonight."_

_"Well, obviously. He never goes _anywhere_ without his cronies. I meant, why isn't he with you?"_

_"Why does he have to be with me all the time?" Lily snapped._

_"Well, a girl as pretty as you could get getting seduced by some other sleeze bag who wants a go at her," Keith said quietly while leaning towards her._

_"Are you a sleeze bag trying to seduce me, Keith?" Lilly asked, equally as quiet, but not moving towards him._

_"Nope." He moved a couple more inches forward._

_"You're not trying to seduce me?"_

_"Yes."_

_"But you just said—"_

_"I'm not a _sleeze bag_ trying to seduce you."_

_"Oh," Lily breathed._

"I know. I know that's _not_ what you want to hear…and something I don't want to feel. But in my defense, for every weak-kneed moment that…that…that _boy_ has put me through, I've had heart palpitations because of you, James Potter. I mean, even from the moment we officially met, you were there…protecting me…helping me."

_"Look, this night has gone from bad to embarrassing to worse. Please leave me alone," she said sadly._

_"Hey, that was my girlfriend…well ex-girlfriend too. You're not alone in this," he said._

_Lily looked away. "I don't know what to do. I just want to forget."_

_"Yeah…I know what you mean."_

_"It feels like we're the only people left. Like, the only people left to find love in this school. Everyone has someone to hold on to…someone to love…and we have no one," Lily said._

_"Yeah. Exactly what I was thinking. You know…I have a plan that might solve our problems though."_

_"Yeah? And what's that?" Lily asked, putting a hand on her waist._

_"Why don't we hook up? You and I could date each other," James said._

_"That's stupid. You just told me that we were using each other for rebound," Lily snapped._

_"Yeah, I know what I said. But I was thinking…just for a little bit. We'll go out for…let's say a month? You know the Christmas dance they always have in December? That will be the last event we'll go to as a couple. We'll break up come the new year," James explained,_

_"I…that sounds stupid," Lily bluntly said. "But…it would be nice…and I wouldn't feel so alone," she mused._

_"So…Lily Evans, will you be my girlfriend for the next two months?" James asked her, holding her hands in his own._

"And then the night after my mother died…"

_"One thing we used to do when I was younger, was go ice skating. Those beautiful skates sat in her closet for who knows how long and for all I know she sold them and they belong to someone who doesn't even know the…the importance of those shoes." Lily started crying again. She let go of James' hand and put her face in her own._

_"We'll find them, Lily. I'll find them for you, I promise," James said._

_"Why was I so horrible to her? What…what was I thinking?" Lily asked._

_"We say stupid things to our parents all the time. Just be happy about the good times you did have with your mom. I mean look at Sirius. He's never had a good relationship with his parents. His mother hates him and his father thinks that he's a disappointment. He was always being tortured by his cousins, but there was a time where he could at least have a conversation with his parents. Sirius rants about how much he hates hi parents and how he never did and never will love them, but I know that deep down inside he holds a place for them. He keeps the smallest, happiest memories with him in his heart. That's all you need to do. Don't think about the dumb things either of you did. Just keep the good ones with you." _

"And then the funeral…"

_Lily found James lying on his bed, staring at the ceiling. She slowly crept over and laid down next to him._

_"Lily," he breathed._

_"I heard that you missed me," she whispered with a smile._

_"A lot," he answered while nuzzling his head into her shoulder. "How was it?" he asked, his voice muffled._

_She was quiet for a minute before she answered. "Emotional." She ran her hands through his hair. "Everyone, from both sides of my family, was there. I think that's what made it so real for me. My mom's mom hates my father and that whole side, yet there she was, sitting boldly at the front without a single tear in sight. I knew that everyone would ask questions, that's why I didn't want you to go with."_

_" I could have handled it."_

_"I know. But I didn't want to _deal_ with it. My mother's side is just so…nosey."_

_James let out a throaty laugh. "My whole family is like that."_

_Lily chuckled. "I could probably lay like this forever," she commented._

_"I don't mind."_

_"I think my roommates might."_

_"So?"_

_"Don't want them to draw any conclusions."_

_"Eh…"_

_"James Potter."_

_"Just sayin'."_

Lily laughed quietly as more tears fell. "And how you wanted to go to Hogsmeade with me last weekend…"

_Lily descended the stairs with Karen and Ronnie behind her._

_"Hey Lils! Ready to get going?" he asked her as she flew by._

_Without breaking stride Lily snapped, "Ask those two."_

_James looked at Lily's roommates for answers._

_"We're taking Lily for the day. Sorry. We have to go dress shopping for the dance. You should understand," Karen apathetically said._

_"Wait…what? No, this is Lily's and my day! You can't have her!" James cried following the girls out of the Common Room._

_"Sorry, Potter, but we're already late. Maybe catch you at dinner? See ya," Ronnie said as Lily and Karen walked around the corner._

Tears freely flowed down Lily's face. "You're amazing, James Potter. You make me feel so special. You make me feel loved." She looked out the window and saw two blue birds fly past the window. "You're also making me cry again, Potter." Lily sighed and looked down on James. "Please make it stop."

qpqpqpqpqpqpqpqp

James started thrashing around and moaning in his sleep. This time though, he sounded as if he was in pain.

"James?"

He was grunting and kicking. His face was contorted in a look of pain, and then he started panting.

"James! Wake up, please. James, everything's gonna be alright. Hold on. Madame Pomfrey!" Lily cried.

"I think it's just a…a side affect."

" A side affect? A side affect of what? What is it?"

"Hold on, Lily," Madame Pomfrey poured some clear liquid down his throat. Immediately all motion stopped. Then he started screaming.

"What's happened? James! JAMES!"

"Miss Evans, I need you to calm down."

"JAMES! LISTEN TO ME! WAKE UP! STOP!"

Just then Dumbledore came into the room. "Is he having a reaction?"

"What are you talking about? Why is this happened?" Lily was now standing over James, staring down at him. He moved as if his whole body was on fire.

"I'm not sure. Maybe he's purging. I've never seen this before."

"What's going on?" Lily went to grab his hand, but he slapped her across the face in the process. Lily staggered back and her lip started bleeding.

Dumbledore put his hands firmly on James' chest to hold him down.

"Why are you doing this? What's wrong?"

Madame Pomfrey poured some more clear liquid down James' throat. He started choking.

"You're suffocating him!"  
"Miss Evans," this was the first time Dumbledore acknowledged her, "we need you to be patience with us."

"Not while I watch you _kill_ him!"

"Get her out of here, Albus," Madame Pomfrey said as she worked at the night stand with more vials.

"Miss Evans…"

"I'm not leaving him!"

"_Albus_…"

"_Miss Evans_…"

"I'm not—" Lily was outside the Hospital Wing. She blinked because everything was out of focus.

"No…no! Let me in! Let me in!" Lily cried as she tugged on the door handle. "James!"

qpqpqpqpqpqpqpqp

"Well, isn't this a lovely place to take a nap?" Her eyes snapped open to see Sirius way too close to her face.

"How long have I been out here?" she asked.

"I don't really know. I've been asleep for ten hours."

"Ten hours? It must be nearly four then."

"Yeah, and Pomfrey wants me to stay until tomorrow, but I'm not nearly as bad as those two."

"So, she doesn't know that you're out here?"

"Nope," he grinned.

"Can we…take a walk?'

The two wandered around in silence. Lily broke that.

"What happened last night?"

"I…I don't know how much I can say; it's really not my place to tell."

"Well then, tell me your side."

"Again, it doesn't really work like that."

"Can you tell me anything?"

"Well, it started with me…and Remus and Pete, not wanting to go to the dance. It's not like we had dates or anything, like you and James." Lily blushed but nodded her head for him to continue.

"Anyway, so we decided to…_explore_…near…the Forbidden Forest. Some hoe we got farther in than expected and something attacked us. Immediately I lost Pete. Then that thing slashed me and Remus ran off. I headed back to the castle—"

"To find James," Lily finished.

"Exactly. The two of us went after Remus…but then James was injured, so he went back and I stayed to find Remus."

Lily let Sirius' words sink in. She knew that there were parts missing, parts that were vital to the entire story. But Lily didn't press because something was better than nothing.

The two made their way back to the infirmary where they met up with an unhappy Madame Pomfrey. She wanted Sirius back in bed, but he argued with her. He got off with drinking another vile. Dumbledore wanted Lily to return to class with the rest of the students the next day. She was very reluctant, but after the incident earlier that day, she didn't want to test him. It was a sleepless night for James and Lily, the only difference was that she was actually awake. Before class, Lily went to visit James. He and Remus were both asleep and so she went to class. Lily saw Sirius and Peter in Transfiguration; Peter seemed to have suffered nothing from the incident. Her original idea about Peter being help was out the window.

It wasn't until Tuesday at dinner that Remus appeared. Lily was aimlessly picking at her food when she saw Remus out of her peripheral.

"Remus! How are you?" she asked as she hugged him.

"Same as always. I would ask you the same, but I already know."

Lily nodded her head.

"I'm sure you want to talk, but I need to eat first. Just let me grab something."

"Of course."

Remus grabbed more than a couple pieces of bread and then they left. Lily followed his lead. She really just wanted to shake the answer out of him, but she contained herself because she had that much more respect for him. He lead her up several flights of stairs, eating his bread, not saying a word to anyone. They turned down a hallway that was unfamiliar to her. Short flights of stairs were present and they followed those up as well. At the very top of these stairs Remus stopped and sat down.

Lily frowned, but followed suit. Remus picked at more of his bread. It wasn't until he was completely done with that piece that he finally spoke.

"When I was very young…something…tragic…happened to me. It's followed me ever since that point. I didn't think I would be able to _live_ a normal life. When I got my acceptance letter, Dumbledore told me he would make this possible. That was excellent, except for that fact that I still had my issue, which I was sure would prevent me from having any friends as well. I tried to keep to myself, but you know how persistent Sirius and James are. I did a pretty good job at keeping my secret…just that. However, by our third year, they wanted answers that wasn't, "My mother is sick." I brought them to this exact spot…and told them that I was a werewolf.

Lily just stared at him. She had made speculations in the past, but that had just seemed so far fetched. Hearing it from the source is a different story.

"They didn't care. They didn't care about my condition. They researched it, learned about what really happened every full moon. Learned that I left the day before the full moon, returned the day after and spent the rest of the second day catching up on sleep." Remus tore off some more bread and slowly chewed it in his mouth. "Then they learned that werewolf's can operate better, have better control if there were…other animals present."

"Remus…you didn't…"

"Of course I didn't. But they did anyway. And by our 5th year, they would travel the grounds, visit Hogsmeade, venture through the Forbidden Forest."

"Remus! That's so dangerous and illegal!"

"I know. But…but I felt better after they would visit. Most of what we would do is still a blur, but I remember some things, and as a whole transformations aren't as painful."

"What happened the night of the dance."

Remus ate some more bread. He took a long time to chew, and an even longer time to answer.

"Sirius and Pete came out, like usual. We transformed together. Sirius wanted to go out to the Forbidden Forest. I…my state…I was okay with that. We didn't get very far in, when something attacked us. Immediately my inner wolf reacted. Peter ran off and Sirius was scratched. I chased after the animal. Twenty minutes later James appeared, and the three of us were fighting the beast. That's when it bit him. I heard James yelp and I…I jumped him. I don't know, something overcame me and I bit his face. The other beast pounced him and it wasn't until his torso was scratched that I decided to act. I rammed into the beast and James sprinted away. The beast ran off as well and Sirius and I went back to the Whomping Willow."

Remus licked his lips while Lily's eyes welled up. "Lily…I am _so_ sorry. I wish…"

"It's not your fault," she whispered. "You know, it's like, at my mother's funeral I didn't cry. I felt as if I had to be strong for everyone there; my father, my sister, even my mother. It was…_so_ easy to do that. But this," tears started to fall down her face. "I…I _can't do this_. I can't be strong for James. The one person who I need isn't here. I don't know what to do Remus. I don't—" the tears freely flowed down her face. Remus pulled her into him and they wept together.

qpqpqpqpqpqp

James was blinded by a bright, white light. In the distance he saw a petite figure.

"James?" it whispered.

"Lily?"

"Yes, it's me, James. How are you?"

"I can't…I can't see. The light—"

"Can you hear me?"

"Yeah, but I can't _see_."

"Just listen to my voice, James."  
"I can't _see_ you. Just…tell me where you are."

"Open your eyes then."

"The light…it's so bright…"

"Trust me, James. Just open your eyes. I'm right here."

"I'm…I'm afraid."

"Don't be."

James forced his eyes open and was greeted with the weeping, yet smiling face of Lily Evans.

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We've got one more left!

Please review :D


	12. Chapter 11: The Get Together

And now the end is near, and so I face the final curtain!

So, three long, long, _long_ years I have spent writing this story. I have many issues finishing things, so you all here are witnessing a monumental moment! Thank you's are in order!

Thanky you to my editor and best friend Time Vortex for being there for me and believing in me.

Thanks to my best friend Missy for teaching me about life and love. You are probably confused right now, but I will always remember!

Thank you to Mr. Hall, my 3rd grade teacher who inspired me to write

Most importantly, thank you to all of those who became apart of the story by either reviewing, voting in the polls, or adding me to one of the lists (ie. favorite author, author alert ect...) This story belongs to you, it really does! I hope everyone enjoys the last chapter of 52 Days, leave a review and I hope to see you all for my next story! :o

Disclamer: I own the plot and words.

* * *

Chapter 11: The Get Together

Classes were mundane as usual. James ignored the pointing and the muttering people made about the slowly healing gash across his cheek. Besides the wound, James was his usual self. The first day of classes consisted of a pleasant firework display; courtesy of the marauders. Now that the new year had come, the next large break was the summer, and even though that was six months away, it didn't keep the students any more focused.

For once in his life, Sirius went to the library. He needed to focus on _some_ school work after all. He grabbed the books he needed and sat down at one of the large round tables buried in the back. Not even five minutes later a shadow appeared.

"Hey, Sirius," Sandy said as she gazed down at him. Sirius just looked at her.

"I've been meaning to talk to you…"

"Really? I haven't."

She pursed her lips together and tried a different tactic. "Well, anyway, I was thinking, maybe we could try _us_ again. I would really like that."

"Let me think about this…no."

"Shit happened. I understand. That was in the past. I was hoping we could…move on."

"Sandy, I already have moved on. If we were to move on together, I would always be a thousand paces a head of you. Now please leave me to my studying."

She gave a cold laugh. "You _don't _study."

"I guess you don't know me very well then."

"_Let me_ get to know you," she pleaded. "Get to know _me_!"

"I already know _you_. You're a lying, shallow, back stabbing bitch who has messed with two marauders too many. I don't want to get to know anything more about you," Sirius snapped.

"Fine. Whatever, you're an _ass_ Sirius," she snapped and stalked away.

Sirius rolled his eyes and continued with his studies.

Unfortunately, that was not the last of Sandy. A crowd of students stood in a circle, in the middle of the corridor, Wednesday evening. James was walking down from the bathroom. He found Remus in the group and asked what was going on.

"Sandy and Fox are having a fight. I guess they had some love affair going on or something."

"I don't want to talk to you!" Sandy cried.

"But what about what we had?"

"It's over!" Tears started streaming down her face.

"Can we please talk about it?" Keith pleaded.

"There is nothing to discuss. We had a fling. Now I want you to leave. Me. ALONE!"

"But—"

"Keith!" she cried. Sandy wiped the tears from her face, leaving it splotchy and red. "We're over. Leave me the hell alone."

She pushed through the crowd and disappeared around the corner. A dejected Keith stood in the middle while she surrounding crow clapped, whistled and made cat-calls. Keith fought the crowd and smashed into Remus and James.

"Who the hell are you looking at?" he shot.

The more mundane classes were, the better meal time became. Lily reached over James to grab some cheese.

"Where are you going with my dairy?" James asked with a raised eyebrow. There was a small scar where hair didn't grow, splitting the brow almost completely in half.

Lily stuck her tongue out at him and shoved the cheese in her mouth.

"Right there."

"Okay, stop before _my_ dairy comes up." Sirius whined as he stuffed meat pie in him mouth.

"Wah," James mocked.

"Actually, I have to agree with Sirius on this one," Peter said while holding a hand over his mouth.

"Sorry," Lily murmured as her face turned bright red.

"Where is Remus?" James interjected.

"At the library, getting it on with another girl—the possibilities are endless," Sirius flippantly said.

All three at the table looked at Sirius with raised eyebrows.

"Okay, you're right. Scratch that last comment."

"For your information, I was out on a walk," Remus said as he brushed snow out of his hair.

"Ahhh! Mooney!" Sirius complained.

"It's so cold out. What were you walking from?" Peter asked.

"Not from. _To_. There is this place in the Forbidden Forest—" Lily looked at him with narrow eyes. "It's perfectly okay. Anyway, during the winter, a whole bunch of night wisps gather for warmth. They let off this beautiful blue glow. It's a little overwhelming in the castle, so I needed some fresh air and a place to think.

"Gay!" Sirius called.

Just then Keith came bounding over.

"Lily! The dance…and we…"

Lily looked at him as if he were stupid. "Spit it out."

"Why the hell are you and Potter…sitting together? He abandoned you at the dance!"

"He left because of family issues. You bothered _me_ all night, not the other way around."

"But…but…" Keith was searching for something to hold on to. "But our snow globe!"

"Broken. Smashed, gone; as are we. Please leave."  
"Lily, I lo—"

"Cut the crap, Fox and don't make me do it," James threatened. Just then Keith noticed that the whole hall was quiet. He looked around at all the starring faces. He confidently left the Great Hall.

"Well, that wasn't a little awkward," Sirius commented.

"Speaking of snow globes…" James said as he pulled a package out of his bag.

"James Potter? Hogsmeade?" she gasped as she opened it. It was the snow globe from the shop in Hogsmeade with the silver base.

"I knew you collected them and…well…Keith's bugged the shit out of me."

"So you broke his on purpose?" Lilly said with a smile.

"No, that was really an accident, just a positive one," he said with a grin.

"Oh, James Potter, give me a kiss," Lily said as she leaned in.

"Hey lovebirds, Valentine's Day is just around the corner, wanna make sure you get the hottest, lowest priced gifts available," Karen said as Ronnie presented a trunk.

"What's in there?" Peter asked.

"Better yet, where did you get all that stuff?" Remus asked as he examined the priceless artifacts.

"Let's just say, not all couples made it past Christmas and were willing to…part with their treasures," Karen said with a grin.

"That's almost morbid," Remus commented.

"No, that's the stuff I'm _talking _about. Bring that over here. I could pick up some chicks by the look of it," Sirius said as Ronnie brought the case over to him.

Lily just shook her head with a smile.

"Young…face…love," James said with a contorted face.

"'Tis true," Lily said as the whole table laughed at Sirius' expense.

Lily admired her snow globe as winter let snow fall, blanketing the Hogwart grounds, making it look pure.

The End.


End file.
